


Extraordinary Things Can Happen

by orphan_account



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe, Coming Out, Drama, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Gallavich, Government Conspiracy Theories, Government Experimentation, M/M, Mutual Pining, Secrets, Sexual Tension, Slurs, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-01-29 05:59:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 37,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12624744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ian Gallagher is starting his freshman year at a brand new high school. He is forced to move to the small town of Vernonia in Oregon: Population 2,194. He's always been sort of a loner, having to constantly move his whole life due to his father's government job. Until one day, he meets a guy at school who he's deeply captivated by. In the midst of trying to balance school, make new friends, and possibly embark on a new found romance; he discovers something about himself that makes him verydifferent.Something even possiblydangerous.He also starts to realize that the quaint town may have its own dark secrets. Will his new self-discovery begin to ruin his fresh start or will it end up saving his life?





	1. Starting Over Again

**Author's Note:**

> This is an au that is non-canonical and obviously fictitious. Ian's father and mother are still named Frank and Monica but are **nothing** like the way they are portrayed in the show. Fiona and Lip are Ian's only siblings. Mandy is Mickey's only sibling. Ian does not have bipolar but does have anxiety. With that being said, I hope you enjoy! ❤

Sitting in the back of his parents Nissan Rogue with his siblings and a few extra boxes, all packed in like a can of sardines, was always the worst way to begin a new life in a new state. Ian detested having to constantly move from state to state his whole life. His siblings, Fiona and Lip, loved starting fresh but unfortuantely Ian did not. The anxiety of having to move from his momentary comfort zone, enter a new school, introduce himself to new classmates, and learn the same curriculum that he most likely learned the year before due to each state being different was truly unbearable. 

He started gnawing on his thumb while looking out the window to take in his new home town: Vernonia. There were trees. Lots of trees. The green was absolutely sensational as it seemed to always be raining. There were more cloudy or rainy days than sunny days in the small town. At least that's what his father informed them at the beginning of their cross-country road trip. The story seemed to check out as rain drops poured out of the sky. The sound was relaxing to Ian but he wasn't sure if it was something he'd be enthused to hear more days than not.

He noticed a sign approaching that read, _Welcome to Vernonia! Population 2,194._ He sighed heavily already knowing how awkward things are going to be for him starting a new school that everyone was already well acquainted with one another at. He would yet again be an outcast. The new kid. To top it off, he'd be starting his freshman year which in itself gave him an uneasy feeling. _At least Lip and Fiona were both starting their senior year,_ Ian thought to himself feeling envious.

Monica, Ian's mother turned around in the front seat to look at her kids. "Almost there, kiddos!" She exclaimed in her usual bubbly tone. 

Fiona rolled her eyes. "Mom, what have I told you about referring to me and Lip as 'kiddos'? So fucking lame."

"Hey! Language!" Frank scolded from the driver's seat. Fiona crossed her arms as she was sandwiched in between her two brothers. Monica smiled softly at Ian.

"At least I can still call you a kiddo! Ah, my Ian is growing up so fast. It breaks my heart." She said feeling sadness and holding a hand over her heart. 

"So dramatic." Lip muttered under his breath.

"And my Lip! You're already a senior. You and Fiona will be off to college before you know it. In a blink of an eye, you'll be flying the coop... No longer babies..." She said, her voice starting to crack on the last word.

"Here we go.." Ian whispered to himself as Monica began to get teary eyed and pulled a tissue out of her purse. This happened frequently. Too frequently for Fiona, Lip and Ian's liking. Fiona turned to Lip and started to silently mock Monica, making an over-dramatic Kim Kardashian cry face. Lip bursted out into laughter and Monica whipped her head around to look at them.

"Are you guys making fun of me again?" Monica asked. Fiona brought her hand on to her chest and looked at Monica sarcastically. 

"Me? Never!" 

Fiona was definitely in the whole 'bitchy teenage girl who hates her mom' phase. Out of the three siblings, she's the one who rebelled the most. She never had a real reason to, though. They had a picture perfect family that everyone wanted but most people didn't have. She felt that her family was fake and hated everything about it. Going to college in the fall was what kept her going knowing she'd be away from them soon. She loved her brothers. No doubt about that. But she hated feeling metaphorically locked in a cage by her strict parentals.

Frank, their father, worked as a scientist for the U.S. government which forced them to have to relocate frequently due to the demands of the job. He wasn't allowed to relay any details of the job as that was an agreement he was contractually obligated to honor. Upon taking said job, he was aware of the long hours and secrecy that it entailed. Knowing this, he made sure that he did his best to put his family. Sometimes that just wasn't feasbile. Sometimes it was. But, he always made sure that he provided for them the best he could. Unfortunately he was never able to provide the one thing they all desperately longed for: Staying in the same place long term.

Frank pulled into a near by gas station to fill up the tank and Monica got out to go into the convenient store. Lip waited until they were gone and looked at Fiona. 

"Think these Vernonia pricks all run the straight and narrow? This place doesn't look like it has much to offer. It's definitely no Manhattan." Lip stated, expression on his face looking unamused as he thought about their last home in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. 

"Fuck if I know. Christ, I could really go for a cigarrete right about now. If I have to listen to Monica's sob story of how her 'precious children are growing so fast' one more time, I think I'm literally going to rip my eyeballs straight outta my face." Fiona complained. 

"Mom loves us. Why do you always gotta rag on her? Shit, Fi. I mean, we have it pretty good. She could be some fuck-up mother who goes off on crazy benders doing drugs and shit." Ian defended shuddering at the thought of some of the people he knew back in New York who had parents like that. 

Fiona narrowed her brown eyes at Ian. "Don't you buy into her bullshit. She's a succubus that latches on to your soul until you have nothing left."

"Oh for fucks sake, Fiona. It's not her fault she grounded you for a month after you crashed her BMW under the influence." Lip chimed in, feeling aggravated by his sister's recent 'I hate mom' attitude. 

"Yeah and it won't be the last time, either." She said bluntly and looked at Lip. "I'm still surprised that Monica actually paid to have our cars driven over to this shitty place. Sucks to not have your license, doesn't it?" She turned to ask Ian.

"Lip and mom can take me driving since you're always too busy being a dumbass and pretending to be a problem child." Ian said. Fiona shoved him in aggravation.

Monica was now in sight walking towards the car from the convenient store with a bag filled with snacks. Ian flipped Fiona off before Monica was close enough to see them.

"Hell yeah! See that? She got us snackies." Lip said with excitement and Fiona rolled her eyes.

"Such bullshit.." she muttered as Monica got back into the car, drenched from the rain, and started to distribute the 'snackies'.

********************************

They arrived to their new home and Ian had to admit it was definitely a looker. It was white with back shutters. It had a farmers porch that wrapped around the front of the house and along the sides. It looked too new to be a colonial, but the architecture resembled just that. To say it was perfect was an understatement. It was more than perfect. But it wasn't satisfying as Ian knew it was only temporary. 

The inside was even more beautiful than the outside. They had hardwood floors that were spic and span leading to the stair case in front of the main entry-way door. To the right of the staircase was a dining room that already had the table set up along with the oak hutch that was handed down to Monica by her mother. To the left of the staircase was an enormous living room that had a bay window in the back of the room. And lastly was Monica's favorite part of the house located behind the staircase. The kitchen. It had beautiful granite top counters that wrapped along the kitchen. It was spacious but homey.

Their furniture and most of their things had already arrived by the movers before they got to their new home. Ian and his siblings raced up the stairs after checking out the first level of their new home to find their beerooms that Monica made an educated guess on before assigning. Fiona found her bed and more of her bedroom furniture in a room that she was very happy to have gotten. Monica did know Fiona's taste which made her daughter appreciative. Though, she'd rather die than admit it.

Ian and Lip made it to their new rooms as well. Ian immediately shut his door and stepped over towards his bed. He sighed heavily before dropping down onto the mattress. There was a window that the rain was pounding down against right next to his bed and he stared out of it mindlessly. The sight consisting of dark, cloudy skies and of course... fucking trees.

He felt more lonely than usual. Although he had it pretty good, he had kept his sexual orientation from his family. He didn't want to disappoint them or something, though, none of them ever gave him reason to believe they'd ever be upset that he was gay. He was petrfied of his feelings, wishing that he could make the thoughts of attraction to men go away. 

He figured out that he was into men when he was ten years old. He was watching Jurassic Park with Lip and every time Jeff Goldblum appeared on screen, his heart would skip a beat. Since then, he knew that he wasn't attracted to women. It made him feel abnormal. He wished he could, at the very least, have the courage to have a boyfriend. But constantly moving and not knowing people long enough to know if they were gay or not made it difficult for him. He'd hooked up with two guys when he was in 7th and 8th grade, but nothing that was ever further than a hand job. All he wanted was a relationship like you see in the movies. The kind that explodes with excitement, love, adventure and even lust. 

He heard a knock on his door, interrupting his thoughts and he sat up in his bed. 

"Come in." He groaned.

"Hey man. Just wanted to see how you're doing. Settling in okay?" Lip questioned, stepping in to the room and closing the door behind him.

"I guess so. Tomorrow's really gonna suck though." Ian sighed out.

"Look, I know tomorrow's our first day at school and shit. I just want you to know that I'm here for you no matter what. I'll drive you since Fiona probably won't and I dont want you stuck taking the bus. But remember, anyone fucks with you then they fuck with me. And why is that?" Lip questioned. 

"Because nobody fucks with the Gallaghers." Ian answered monotonously. 

Lip smiled. "That's right. That'll never change. Got it?" Ian nodded. 

Lip started to turn around and Ian quickly thought, _Fuck it._

"Hey Lip?"

His brother stopped and turned his body back to face Ian. "Yo?"

Ian took a deep breath. He looked into his brother's eyes with utter fear. "I'm gay." He said so quietly that it was almost in a whisper. 

Lip stared at his brother for a few moments and Ian's stomach flipped upsidedown. _This is it. He's gonna think I'm disgusting._

"I know, Ian. See you later, yeah?" Lip said nonchalantly. Ian furrowed his brow, still feeling uneasy. 

"Aren't you gonna say anything?" 

"I just told you that I'd see you later?" Lip said as if Ian didn't just drop his darkest secret. 

"You don't care that I'm gay?"

"I don't get a say in who you are as a person, Ian. I love you no matter what. Don't ever let anyone make you feel like less of a human for loving who you love. Be proud of who you are. Be proud of yourself for telling me. I can't even imagine how terrifying that shit can be."

Ian exhaled and felt instant relief. He definitely was not expecting Lip to ever be that open and accepting of him. He warmly smiled and looked up at his brother. 

"Thanks Lip. Really means a lot. Do you think you can keep this between us until I'm ready to tell everyone?"

"Course. I'm gonna go finish unpacking but you know where to find me if you need me."

Ian nodded and Lip smiled genuinely as he turned around to leave his brother's room. Ian felt like a heavy weight was lifted off of his shoulders. He never would have thought it could be that easy to finally come out. If only it was always that easy...

Ian laid down on his bed and tried to drown out the major anxiety he was feeling about starting school in the morning. He hoped to at least make one new friend this time around. That was his goal, he decided. He pulled out his phone and put in his ear buds to lose himself in the music, already getting sick of the sound of rain.


	2. First Impressions

Ian's alarm clock went off promptly at 6:30am. He didn't sleep much the night before due to his nerves. He was always nervous for the first day at a new school and today wasn't any different. He rolled outta bed to make his way to the bathroom; of course, the room nothing short of being beautiful. 

The redhead stopped in front of the mirror to take a look at his reflection. His emerald green colored eyes had dark circles around them and he looked paler than usual. He sighed and turned away to strip off his clothes and open the glass door to the two person shower. The water was burning hot on to his skin, turning him a reddish color to nearly match his hair. Taking a hot shower was one of his favorite parts of the day so he savored the feeling of the hot spray over his body.

The feeling of relaxation quickly diminished when he heard banging on the bathroom door.

"Hurry the fuck up, jackass! You're gonna use up all the hot water!" His sister yelled from behind the door. He sighed and finished rinsing off the lathered-on soap before he turned the nozzle to stop the water. He wrapped a towel around his waist and grabbed his dirty clothes to head back to his room. He opened the bathroom door, letting a cloud of steam out, and saw his sister with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. _Christ, she's so dramatic._

"Move, twirp." She said as she pushed through him and slammed the door behind her. He turned around to look at the closed door.

"Why do you gotta act like you're on your period 24/7?" He yelled through the door. "Bitch." He muttered under his breath as he heard the shower start in the bathroom and headed down the hall back in to his room. 

The boxes in his room weren't completely unpacked yet but he did have a good portion of his clothes unpacked and put away in his closet and drawers. To his unsurprise, it had been raining again and the temperature outside seemed cold. He pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans and a green and black colored flannel to go with his brown TOMS chukka boots.

Lip knocked on his door and entered the room, wearing a black long sleeved shirt with gray colored pants and similar boots to his brother's. 

"You ready to go learn and shit?" Lip said sarcastically and Ian chuckled. He grabbed his backpack and followed Lip down the stairs to have breakfast before leaving to Vernonia High.

Monica made eggs and bacon, her usual that she'd make when her kids started at a new school to help make their days start a little. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so they say. Monica poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Lip as she knew he liked it black. He smiled and sat down at the small bench table that was already installed into the kitchen. 

"Dad at work already?" Ian asked as Monica emptied eggs on to his plate. 

"Yeah, sweetie. He said to wish you all good luck on your first day! He's so proud of you all. I wish he could be around more for you, though." Monica said being her lips to a frown.

"He does his best." Was all Lip before taking a handful of bacon from his plate and shoving it into his mouth. 

They all looked over towards the staircase as they heard heels clicking down the stairs. Fiona appeared wearing ankle length gray high heeled boots with a short black dress and a black leather jacket over it. Her eye liner was on way too thick and Monica's jaw dropped down to the floor. Ian laughed sarcastically already knowing how this morning was going to go.

"Morning, Fi. You on your way to work the corner?" Lip teased and she flipped him off, continuing to hold her middle finger up as she walked over to pour herself a cup of coffee.

"You realize it's like 45 degrees and rainy, right?" Ian asked as she took a sip of the coffee and put it down on the counter. 

"You realize you look like a fucking lumberjack, right?" Fiona mocked back in a demeaning voice to her little brother. Ian rolled his eyes and let Monica take care of the rest.

"Fiona. A word please." Monica said while nodding over to the living room. 

Fiona rolled her eyes and followed her mom into the room. Lip and Ian began to crack up as they heard the two headstrong women going back and forth. Lip looked up at his brother. 

"See, at least you don't have to deal with chick drama." 

Ian chuckled. "Guys can get pretty complicated, too. Especially if they're gay and not willing to come out or accept it yet. It's not like I can just go over to any cute guy I see and be like, 'Oh hey there. Are you gay? Oh me too!' You gotta wait for the right time until you know."

"Like I said, I couldn't imagine how terrifying that shit can be. Who knows, maybe you'll find a guy at school who could tickle your fancies."

Ian bursted out into laughter. "Tickle my fancies? What are you, 90?"

"One could say I have an old soul." Lip teased and finished the eggs on his plate.

Fiona stormed out of the living room and grabbed her purse off of the floor to barrel through the front door. They heard Monica sigh heavily as the sound of screeching tires peeling away startled them. Monica walked into the dining room looking defeated. 

"She'll come around, Mom. She's just being a bitchy teenage girl." Lip said in hopes to comfort Monica. 

She nodded and tried her best to muster up a smile. Lip truly felt bad for her at times as Monica busted her ass to give them everything she possibly could. Fiona was just being selfish and unappreciative. Lip stood up to walk his plate over to the sink and rinse it. He walked over towards Monica and put a hand on her shoulder. 

"You're not a shitty mom. Don't let her bratty ass get to you." Her smile was now genuine and she hugged her son before he immeditaly pulled away, grimacing at the affection. Ian chuckled and followed suit to put his dish in the sink.

"I hope you guys have a good first day! Steer clear from bullies!" Monica said soon turning back to her bubbly self.

Ian nodded and followed Lip out the door to his all black '69 Camaro Z28 that he fixed up himself. He loved working on cars and bought the Camaro when it was a piece of shit. He fixed it up and invested a few grand into it to make it truly great. Fiona drove a brand new white Audi R7S and Lip gave her shit for buying such a 'rich bitch' car. Ian decided he'd want something more like Lip's car when he was able to get his license.

Another thing that made Ian nervous was that he was starting his freshman year at age 16 soon turning 17. So he was old enough to have a license but just hasn't gotten it yet. He was held back twice: Once in the third grade and once in the seventh. He'd always wished he could be as smart as his older brother but school just wasn't ever his thing. 

Lip pulled in to the fairly small, back parking lot and started to get out as Ian stayed in the front seat not making any movement. Lip sighed and tossed his cigarette down to the ground before anyone saw it and walked over to the passenger side. The rain let up to sprinkling down as opposed to the down pouring this morning, so Lip left his jacket in the car.

"C'mon, bud. It's going to be fine. I swear."

Ian exhaled and felt sick to his stomach. He was usually nervous but today he was exceptionally anxious. He watched as the students made their way over to the high school, already cliquey. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach and finally came to terms that today was absolutely going to suck. He slowly pushed open the Camaro's heavy door and stepped out on to the pavement to start his shitty day.

The Gallaghers made their way to the main office which wasn't terribly hard to find as the school wasn't that big. They saw Fiona already in their getting her schedule and pretending not to know her brothers as she pushed past them to head to her first class. Lip was next, talking to the secretary about his information. Ian kept his gaze to the floor until suddenly he heard yelling. 

Ian snapped his neck up, office going completely silent to look at the scene unfold over to the right of the room. A student was yelling at one of the guidance counselors about his schedule. Ian's heart stopped as he looked at the student, taking in his appearance. He had dark colored hair that was slightly longer on the top that was pushed back. He had been wearing black jeans with a white long sleeved shirt that was covered by a faded gray colored leather jacket. And his _eyes._ They were ice blue. Absolutely gorgeous. Ian didn't even notice that he was staring but luckily neither did anyone else as they were watching the student lay in to the counselor. 

"You fucking promised me no Chemistry this year, Heely! And would you take a look at that!" The student yelled tapping his index finger on his schedule. "Tell me, Heely. Go on, tell me what the fuck you see right there!"

The burly man scratched at his completely bald head and sighed in annoyance. "Relax, Milkovich. I already told you that I can't get you out of it. You need the credits to pass your junior year. Now cut the shit and get to class. Nobody's impressed by your tough guy act."

Mickey laughed out sarcastically and brought a hand up to his nose. _Does he have a knuckle tattoo that says 'fuck'?_ Ian thought trying to squint his eyes to read the tattoo. 

"You ain't even seen my tough guy act yet." He muttered out.

"Mr. Milkovich, is that a threat?" The counselor pressed. "We've talked about this countless times. You need to stay far away from suspension this year if you're serious about colleges. And you're about a half of another threat away from getting one. Now get to class." Mr. Heely gritted through his teeth. 

Mickey glared at him and turned around, stopping completely in his tracks. His eyes were on Ian's. Ian instantly looked down and blushed and the Milkovich student barged out of the room. The office began to fill with chatter again as Mr. Heely went into his office and slammed the door. Lip let out a laugh and looked at his brother. 

"Well shit, if that isn't a way to start your first day." Lip said and Ian nervously chuckled. Once Lip went back to discussing with the secretary, the redhead looked behind him to the door where the yelling student exited. He felt his heart flutter remembering the man's appearance only moments ago. He sighed, knowing someone like him probably wasn't gay. Ian turned around to face front waiting for his turn for his schedule. 

***************************

"Gallagher?" Ian's new algebra teacher, Mrs. Garnett, called out. 

"Here." He answered, of course stuck sitting at the front of the class. 

He didn't even want to look around the room to avoid eye contact with other students. As Mrs. Garnett continued on with her roll call, Ian began to drown her out and looked out the window noticing it started to pour again. The drops started pounding against the window until his attention was grabbed by the teacher's next name she called out on the roster. 

"Milkovich?" Ian snapped his head up to listen but was confused to hear a female's voice answering, "Here."

He slowly turned his head around to see a girl with shiny black hair, bangs above her crystal blue heavy black lined eyes. She was chewing gum obnoxiously and resting her head down on her arms covered by an oversized black sweater. Her eyes met Ian's as he turned around and she smiled. 

"You're new." She whispered. Ian flushed. 

"Uh, yes, I'm new. Just moved her from Manhattan yesterday actually." Ian said wondering why he was even talking to her in the first place knowing he never talked to anyone as he'd just have to move soon anyway.

"New York, huh? Born and raised?" She asked, starting to sit up to get a better look of the redhead. 

"Nah. Born in Indiana, actually."

"Get around a lot?" She asked raising an eyebrow in interest. 

"Pretty much. My dad works for the government so we always have to move. It actually really sucks. I think the longest period of time we've stayed in one place for was a year. It's been like this basically my whole life." Ian confessed, now really wondering why he was revealing so much about his life to a stranger. She seemed easy to talk to, though. Purely interested in what he was saying. 

"Jesus. That does suck. I've been stuck here my whole life with my brother and poor excuse for a father. The only exciting thing about this shitty town is... absolutely _nothing._ It just rains and has a bunch of trees and shit. Gets sunny every once in a while but other than that, it's actually kind of depressing. Everyone knows everything about everyone though. Which is also pretty shitty."

Ian nodded and laughed. "I did notice the plethora of trees." Then it dawned on him. _Her brother..._

"I'm pretty sure I saw your brother yelling at some guidance counselor before getting to class."

She chuckled darkly. "Yup, that's him. I'm Mandy by the way." 

"Ian." He said and smiled.

"Mandy, am I interrupting you?" Mrs. Garnett asked, finished with her roll call. 

"Um duh." Mandy snarked back. The other classmates began to laugh.

"Detention. Be here after school." Mrs. Garnett ordered and Mandy shrugged. 

Ian turned around to face the front and Mandy muttered, "She thinks I'm going to actually show."

Ian chuckled and pulled out a notebook to start jotting down notes from the teacher's lecture. Maybe Vernonia wasn't going to be so bad, Ian thought. He couldn't help but think back to Mandy's brother and how attractive he was. Ian felt movement in his pants and quickly ended his train of thought before having a full on boner in the front of the classroom. He moved his attention to the board, hoping to maybe do better than straight D's this year.


	3. New Friends

"Gallagher! I said to dribble down the court, not mop it up with your body! Hustle!" Ian's gym teacher yelled, embarrassing him by by blatantly pointing out his clumsiness. 

Gym was his least favorite thing to do in school. Every year it was just more and more awkward for him. He especially hated it when he'd have to work with the students who are wanna-be sports superstars and took _everything_ way too seriously. He was never more than an average athlete; if you can categorize that with constantly missing baskets, never getting soccer goals, or practically missing any sort of scoring you could imagine. He did, however, love to run and was always good at that. He ran track in middle school but stopped as he lost interest in the midst of having to up and leave to a new home.

After being embarassed by the gym teacher, Ian huffed and started to get up when one of the said wannabe sports superstars came over and pushed him back down. 

"You fucking suck, ginger." The guy said as Ian stared at him walking away, wishing he was anywhere but there. 

A girl who stood at about 5 foot seven and wasn't dressed in gym clothes, suddenly came out of nowhere and stopped the guy who picked on Ian by grabbing the front of his t-shirt. Ian's eyes widened as the jock looked like he probably just shit his own pants in fear by a girl grabbing him like that. It was sort of a comical sight to see her scaring such a muscular guy who was probably about six feet tall. She narrowed her hazel eyes at him.

"Think it makes you a big tough man to pick on people, Josh?" She growled out. She looked over her arm to her side, making sure the gym teacher was preoccupied with another one of the jocks. 

"Jerica, I didn't mean it!" He cried out in fear.

"So you're gonna fuck off and leave him alone, right?"

"No. I mean yes! I mean uh.. yes!"

She started to mock him, making a stuttering sound and began to laugh as she dropped him so he'd fall to the ground. 

"Go apologize." She ordered looking down at him.

He stumbled to get up and paced over to Ian. 

"Sorry, dude." He said as he paced his way back over to the court. Jerica smiled deviously at the fear she put into the jock and sat down on the bleachers to pull out a notebook, beginning to doodle. 

She had straight, very long chestnut brown colored hair that was parted all the way to the right side of her head. The left side of her head was buzzed; only stubbles of dark hair coming through. She was thin, long and lanky like Ian was. Her skin was very pale as most of the students who lived here were from the lack of sun. She had been wearing black skinny jeans with a black Nirvana band t-shirt, slightly covered by her dog tag necklace. And lastly, pairing with her consistent black color themed outfit were her black combat boots. 

Ian looked at her hands as he noticed she had knuckle tattoos almost like Mandy's brother, though, not reading a profanity. Her tattoos read OVER on the left hand and COME on the right. Ian thought she looked badass but was terrified to talk to her. So, he just continued to stare taking her all in. Even though she looked like she could definitely kick your ass in an instant, Ian decided she was beautiful. 

"You gonna get up off the floor, red?" She asked, still looking down at her doodle. 

Ian flushed and immediately stood up, not moving and still staring at her. She sighed, sensing his green eyes on her. She looked up at him unamused.

"If this is you trying to flirt with me in some sort of creepy stalker-ish way, you can save your breath. I'm gay as fuck." Jerica said raising a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, then looking back down to her doodle.

Ian snapped out of his trance and instantly felt relief to know that he wasn't the only gay student of Vernonia high even if she was a girl. It was comforting to him to atleast have someone whom he could relate to. Ian admired her for being able to just say it so easily outloud like that; something that took him years to do up until yesterday. He walked over to her and sat down.

"I am too, actually." He confessed quietly. She looked up again from her drawing and smiled at him warmly. 

"I mean, not that many guys have ever really tried to flirt with me anyway. They're all pretty scared of me actually." She chuckled. Ian followed suit.

She put a hand on her chest. "Jerica. And you are?"

"Ian... Ian Gallagher." He smiled. She extended her arm out awaiting him to shake her hand. He gently grabbed her hand and began to shake.

"Very pleased to meet you, Ian Gallagher." Jerica said with a smile. 

Ian knew instantly that this would be his very first friend he's had in a long time. They continued to shoot the shit; talking as if they've know eachother their whole lives for the remainder of gym class. When the bell rang, Ian suddenly remembered he still had his gym clothes on and cursed. He jogged over towards the locker room hoping to avoid being late to his next class and quickly stopped to turn around and yell over to his new friend.

"What class do you have next?"

"Fucking chemistry with Mr. Mack." Jerica replied.

Ian's eyes lit up. "Me too! Wait for me? I'll be quick."

She nodded and jumped down from the bleachers to wait over by the boys locker room. Ian turned around and gunned it into the locker room to change as quickly as possible. Most of the guys had already left so he was happy to know he was alone in their. He grabbed his clothes out of the locker and slammed it shut, startled to see the same jock, Josh, who picked on him earlier standing next to him with his arms crossed. 

"You better watch yourself, Gallagher. That dyke can't always be there to save you." He gritted out of his teeth and shoved through Ian to leave the now empty room.

Josh's perfectly sculpted brown hair made Ian want to giggle thinking about how ridiculous it looked on him making him look like a model reject. He chuckled to himself and paced out of the locker room and out to Jerica who had been standing by the door with one leg kicked up behind her, leaning against the wall. She had been looking at her phone and then looked up to see her new redheaded friend ready to go to class. She smiled and brought her foot down off the wall to make their way out of the gym.

They made it to their next class and Jerica's face lit up as soon as she entered the room seeing one of her friends. Ian had been looking down at his schedule, hoping to be able to memorize it soon. Jerica grabbed Ian's hand to pull him to the last seats in the back right before the beginning of the lab set ups were. A few students were already seated and Jerica glared at them, causing them to instantly stand up and move to other seats. She chuckled and sat down next to her friend. Ian still looking down sat infront of her, diaganol from her friend. He didn't even want to look at the other students piling in, instantly feeling anxiety creep up on him.

"Heely really fucked me for this. He lied and said I wasn't going to be in this class. But here I fucking am with all the freshmen and sophomores, no offense Jerica. Apparently I need the credits to pass junior year. So fucking dumb." Jerica's friend complained to her.

Ian snapped his head up and slowly turned it diaganol to face Jerica's friend whose voice sounded so familiar. _No fucking way.._

Blue eyes gazed over at Ian's green ones and lingered for a moment. Ian's heart fluttered and he turned around to face the front, hoping Mandy's brother didn't think he was weird for staring. 

"Heely fucking sucks. He stuck me in here too. Probably just gonna flunk it anyway." Jerica snorted, leaning back in her chair. She leaned forward and put a hand on Ian's shoulder causing him to turn his body around to face her. "Ian, this is my best friend, Mickey. Mickey, this is Ian. Met him in gym class. That fucking pretty boy douchebag Josh Pederson was picking on him so obviously I had to rough him up a bit."

Ian blushed as Mickey nodded at him and turned his head back to Jerica. 

"Obviously." Mickey confirmed, knowing that she was also sliding on thin ice at the high school and would be completely lost with out her if she were ever to get expelled. 

"Should be careful though. They'll be quick to kick your ass to the curb since you're not a fucking jock or into student counsel shit or whatever." Mickey inferred a warning. She rolled her eyes and got up.

"Be right back. Gotta go to the bathroom." She said as she shoved through some other students to leave the classroom.

Ian felt the heat in his cheeks but for some reason still found himself turning around to face the attractive man. Mickey looked up realizing eyes were on him.

"I uh, met your sister this morning. She's in my first period algebra class."

Mickey nodded looking uninterested. Ian was about to just turn back around but decided that he had made so much progress in the last 24 hours with his confidence, so why should he stop now.

"Thought it was pretty cool this morning the way you stood up to that guidance counselor."

Mickey raised an eyebrow beginning to look a bit more interested in the conversation.

"Probably not a good thing you think it's cool. I'm the type of friend your parents have nightmares about." Mickey said with a small chuckle. 

_Friend... Definitely not gay._

"Eh, I think mine would live." Ian said, knowing Monica would probably have a cow seeing who her son's new friends were.

Ian gazed down at Mickey's hands to get a clear view of his knuckles reading FUCK on one hand and U-UP on the other. Yup. Monica would definitely have a mini heart attack.

Mickey followed the redhead's gaze down to his knuckles. "Got them done in my buddy's basement four years ago for my 13th birthday. Definitely regret it. That's what I get for getting trashed so young and playing with a tattoo gun."

Ian laughed. He looked up to see Mickey's eyes staring into Ian's. The way Mickey looked at him made him feel something that he couldn't quite describe. His gaze broke from Mickey's when he heard Jerica cursing out some guy at the front of the room for telling her she looked like a dude with a half shaved head.

Mickey stood up and whispered, "Here we go again."

Ian turned his gaze back to Jerica, also noticing that the chemistry teacher's presence was absent. Mickey huffed and moved to the front of the room to stand by his friend who looked like she was two seconds away from punching someone in the mouth. 

"Ay! Why don't you fuck off and leave her alone, Steve, so she doesn't have to embarass the shit outta you by kicking your ass infront of everyone here." Mickey said defending Jerica.

"You think you're so tough, Milkovich. You aren't shit. You and your whore of a sister should just leave town and never come back. No one's scared of you." Steve said.

The rest of the students went silent and slowly backed away, proving Steve's statement to be wrong as they were _all_ afraid of Mickey and Jerica. Jerica turned her head to her friend and said, "After you."

Mickey held his gaze on Steve and smiled. He brought his knee up to Steve's groin, dropping the kid like a rag doll. Mickey crouched down and patted Steve on the cheek. 

"Next time, I'm not gonna go so easy on you." He whispered as he stood up and stepped over the man on the ground to head back to his seat. Jerica laughed and followed suit.

"You're safe with us, Ian." She said whilst sitting down. "Kids can be so fucking brutal. That's why Mick and I don't let them try shit on us. No one usually steps to us but Steve is a constant exception. He never learns."

Ian's eyes widened while watching Steve slowly start to get up and sit in his seat in the front. He looked back at his new friends who carried on with their conversation as if nothing even happened. They were like bully vigilantes. He admired both of them for never taking anyone's shit. He smiled at them and decided that maybe having friends wasn't so bad. 

The teacher entered the room soon after with a coffee mug in hand. "Sorry, guys. Had to get a coffee before getting through this lecture for the millionth time today." Mr. Mack teased. 

Ian decided this would be his favorite class of the day also being his last.

******************************

Ian walked out of the school with Mickey, Jerica and Mandy once the bell finally rang to indicate their first day of school finally ended. It had been down pouring outside to no one's surprise. They all stood under the canopy of green from the trees off to the side of the school to smoke a cigarette. They were all holding up umbrellas, Ian not having one yet so sharing under Jerica's. 

"Your brother dropped Steve last period in Chem. Don't know what you ever saw in that douchebag." Jerica said to Mandy while exhaling the smoke.

Mandy flipped her off causing Mickey and Ian to chuckle.

"Jer's right, Mands. He probably has a fuckin chode." Mickey teased.

"Wouldn't you like to know." His sister retorted. 

Mickey took a drag and exhaled the smoke out of his nose. 

"Wouldn't." He replied.

Ian furrowed his brow trying to understand what Mandy meant by that but his thoughts were suddenly interrupted.

"Ian?" Lip called out a few feet away. He walked over to Ian and his new friends, feeling relieved to see that Ian is actually socializing with other people.

Mandy raised an eyebrow looking up and down Lip. "Who's that?" She asked Ian. 

"My brother." Ian answered, standing still under the umbrella.

Lip jogged toward the canopy, drenched by the rain, and joined their circle. He lit up a cigarette and looked at Ian's group of new friends.

"Hi, I'm Mandy." She said looking up at him with flirty eyes. Lip smiled while taking a drag of his cigarette and Mickey rolled his eyes.

"Lip. Ian's older brother. Glad to see not everyone here has a stick up their asses." They all chuckled and continued to smoke.

"Your brother's pretty cool. Definitely made my gym class more bearable." Jerica said. 

"Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy." Mickey confirmed. Ian's heart fluttered again. 

Lip smiled, feeling proud of his brother. "Alright, Ian. We should probably get going. Mom needs help with some more unpacking and we both know Fiona's not gonna do shit to help."

Ian sighed and dropped his cigarette to the ground. "Thanks guys for making me feel welcomed. See you all tomorrow." Ian said as he turned to re enter the monsoon. 

The four of them in circle watched as the Gallagher brothers walked away to Lip's camaro. Jerica and Mandy watched Mickey as he was still staring in the direction of the Gallaghers. Jerica tossed her cigarette to the ground.

"Ladies and gentlemen, is Mickey Milkovich smitten?" She exclaimed and Mandy laughed. 

Mickey turned his head to Jerica and narrowed his eyes. "Absolutely not. I was just spacing out."

"Spacing out onto the view of Ian's ass?" Jerica pressed raising an eyebrow.

"Fuck outta here with that shit." Mickey huffed, also tossing his cigarette down.

"He told me he was gay. Who knows, maybe you two could hit it off." Jerica said wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

"Not my type." Mickey said dryly.

"Oh for Christ sakes, Mick. DJ isn't coming back. He fucking moved to Arizona. You guys weren't even a thing anyway. You'd just hook up every now and then." Mandy interjected. Then she furrowed her brow as realization struck. "Oh shit.. Did Ian's family move in to DJ's old house on Maple Ave?"

"Yup." Jerica confirmed, thinking back to the conversation she and Ian had during gym.

Mickey rolled his eyes and stared off into the distance, thinking about a certain redhead who made him suddenly forget about his interest in his old flame.


	4. Weird Feelings

Lip stopped off at the store on the way home to pick up bread and milk per Monica's request. Ian decided to stay in the car and pulled out his phone to scroll through social media. He had two friend requests on Facebook from Jerica and Mandy. He accepted and scrolled through their pages out of curiosity but most importantly to see if they had anything about Mickey. To his dismay, Mickey definitely did not seem to have a Facebook but he did find a bunch of pictures of the man on his sister's page. 

He scrolled through the pictures, finding himself smiling like a dork at the images. The last picture that featured Mickey on Mandy's page was of him at some sort of carnival. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was flipping off the camera with one hand while choke holding Jerica with the other arm. Ian chuckled, knowing his new friends definitely seemed to be as goofy as he was.

Lip came back to the car a few minutes later with the groceries and took off to finally make it home. When they made it inside of the home, the TV was fairly loud set on the local news station. Lip went in to the kitchen to put the groceries away but Ian stood in the door way to watch the screen and listen as the story peaked his interest. 

_A recent report states that some locals seemed to be noticing strange lights in the sky at night. Robert Jones of Vernonia, 67, sheds some light on what he's been supposedly seeing over the course of the last six months here in the small town._

The screen cut to a close up of the older man, eyes wild and crazy. His hair was graying and he was wearing a yellow sweater with a camo vest over it.

_Me and the guys were out and about one night hunting when all of a sudden my buddy noticed some weird green flashing lights in the sky. As soon as he pointed up and shouted for us to look, the lights zoomed away in the speed of sound. Gone before our very eyes! Next thing I know I've got vans following me everywhere I go 'round town for the next few months. I told y'all once before and I'll say it again. The government's hiding things from us! They're out there messing with things they shouldn't be and scrutinizing our every move. I'm warning you now that eventually they're gonna get into some things that they wished they hadn't and then we're all gonna face the consequences!_

Ian's pupils dilated and his ears began to ring after hearing the crazy man speaking on the screen. He completely zoned out, shutting everything out around him.

"Ian?" Lip said with a sense of urgency putting a hand on his brother's shoulder nearly scaring him to death. Ian exhaled and turned to his brother. 

"Did you hear me? I've been calling for you the last few..... Woah. Dude, are you okay?" Lip asked looking at his brother with concern. 

Ian furrowed his brow in utter confusion to see that Lip was motioning to his nose. Ian brought his knuckle up to his nose to notice blood covering it. He walked over to the sink to grab a paper towel for his nose and to rinse his hand off. Ian pressed the paper towel up to his nose and looked to Lip.

"I'm uh, fine. What's up?"

"Um.. Okay.. Anyway, I was asking how your new friends were? I'm pretty stoked you made some." Lip answered. 

Ian removed the paper towel from his nose, gazing down at the glistening red. He folded it and put it back up to his nose.

"They're great." Was all Ian could say, distracted by his thoughts that were fixated on that interview he just saw on the TV. 

"Hey, you ever wonder what dad actually does? I mean he says he's a scientist but he's never once talked about his job. Don't you think that's a bit sketchy?" Ian asked.

"No? He works for the government, Ian. He's contractually obligated to not talk about it. Like some Men in Black shit. I think it's kinda cool, actually."

"Is it, though?" Ian asked, removing the paper towel to see his bloody nose diminished. 

Lip furrowed his brow and went deep into thought, starting to see Ian's point. They were both interrupted by Fiona holding an empty bowl of what was before filled with cereal.

"What are you losers up to?" She asked, rinsing out the bowl. 

"Fi, you ever think about what dad actually does for work?" Lip asked, starting to gain interest and curiosity. 

"Nothing that's good. I can tell you that much." She answered still looking down at the bowl she was rinsing. 

"We should go down to the lab he works at and check it out." Ian suggested.

"The fuck kinda drugs are you on? The lab is probably heavily surveillanced and shit. I wouldn't even doubt that they probably listen to everything we're saying incase Frank accidentally slips up and tells us something he shouldn't." Fiona said, looking up from the now clean bowl over at her brothers. 

Ian narrowed his eyes and walked over to the living room to the bay window, pulling back the curtain just a slightly to see a mysterious black van parked across the street. He released the black curtain to let it fall over the window and quickly walked back into the kitchen to interrupt his sibling's bickering. 

"Guys. I think Fiona's right." Ian said as he waved for them to follow him to the living room.

Lip slightly pulled back the curtain to also see the black van. Fiona shook her head.

"See. We just probably haven't noticed being watched before. But I'm sure we've been being watched and listened to for years." She said and sat down on the couch.

Lip shrugged and changed the subject deciding not to dive in to conspiracy theory mode. "So where's mom? She texted me before school ended to ask me to pick up a few things from the store before coming home."

"Who knows. Who cares." Fiona answered, scrolling through her phone.

Lip rolled his eyes and started to head upstairs to his room. Ian was about to do the same until stopping infront of the door to the main entrance of the house parallel to the staircase. He slowly opened the door to get a better look at the van parked out in the pouring rain. The van instantly started and zoomed away. Ian furrowed his brow and closed the door. He felt that something wasn't right, but for now he decided to let it go. He headed up to his room to start on his homework. 

*******************************

On the way to school the next morning, Ian felt strange. He didn't feel right but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Maybe more anxiety, he narrowed it down to. As Lip parked the car and they headed to the school, the rain stopped. Ian smiled hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of some sunshine later on. That could also be part of the problem, he thought. 

Ian walked in to algebra to sit next to Mandy. She looked up and smiled at him. 

"Morning, Ian! You look uh.. Tired." She commented on the dark circles around his eyes.

"I didn't sleep much last night. My thoughts didn't really allow me too. Also not feeling too well this morning." He answered yawning and pulling out his book.

"So we don't have school tomorrow and Friday since Monday's Labor Day. We were wondering if maybe you and Lip wanna come hang out with us at Jerica's? Her parents are gone for the long weekend so she's throwing a small get together tonight. You down?" Mandy asked, biting the eraser of her pencil.

"Sure. Need me to bring anything?"

"If you're able to, you can try to bring your own booze. Other than that, just bring yourselves. Jerica's got the food covered."

"I'm sure Lip can get us shit with his fake ID."

Mandy grinned and turned her direction to the teacher barging through the door all flustered. Mandy rolled her eyes and decided to actually pay attention to class today. 

Ian's day flew by to his relief. He started to feel better as the day went on but mostly because it meant he was getting closer to his only class with his crush. It was already second to last period, gym, and Ian decided to take the failing grade for the day to hang out with Jerica on the bleachers. 

"So Mandy says you're down for tonight?" Jerica asked raising an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, of course. I still gotta talk to Lip to see if he wants to go but I'm definitely down even if he's not."

"Yeah, Mandy's trying to fuck your brother so that's why he's invited. Let me give you my number incase you need me to scoop you tonight. Plus I want your number since you're my friend and all." She smiled and pulled out her phone to hand over to Ian.

Ian forgot that she had her license as she was a sophomore. He smiled and took the phone. He then handed her his to enter the phone number. As Ian was entering the number in he heard Josh, or 'The Hair' Ian decided was a good nickname for him, get yelled at by the gym teacher and was told to sit out. Josh huffed and approached the bleachers. He sat down two rows below them and crossed his arms. Jerica looked up and grinned deviously.

"Your hair getting in the way of winning again, Joshy Poo?" Jerica teased and he turned around to glare at her. 

"You're just jealous that I'm prettier than you are, lesbo." He retorted. 

"Wow, Josh. Your insults just get even more creative every day. You've really gotta teach me your ways." Jerica replied sarcastically. Ian chuckled. 

"Don't laugh, ginger. You know I could kick your ass in two seconds." Josh snorted. 

Ian narrowed his eyes at Josh. Usually stupid comments like that wouldn't bother him in the slightest, but he felt angry. Unusually angry. Josh stood up to move away from them. Before moving, he moved his gaze to Jerica.

"You should try to stop raiding Edgar Allen Poe's closet, Jer. Bright colors really won't hurt. I swear you won't melt away if you don't wear black for one day of your life." He snickered and started to walk away as Jerica rolled her eyes and flipped him off.

Ian felt even more anger. His ears began to ring and his eyes were glued to Josh as he walked to the other side of the gym to sit away from them. A basket ball rolled over towards him from the game that was going on. A student hustled over to the ball and asked if Josh could grab it. Ian's eyes were completely fixated on Josh, wishing the ball would roll up the bleachers and smack him in the head. 

Josh ignored the student and kept walking. Ian held his breath and quickly looked at the ball, feeling something inside of him he's never felt before. Something _strange_. He couldn't tell if it was just anger or if it was something else. The moment he moved his eyes back on to Josh, the ball rolled quicker than it did just seconds ago. It rolled right up the bleachers and hit Josh in the head. Ian suddenly felt a sense of fatigue and moved his gaze down to his feet, gasping from from holding his breath. _Did I just..._ He stopped thinking for a moment and dropped his head down to rest.

"The fuck, Jim!" Josh yelled out after getting hit with the ball. 

"I swear I didn't do that! It just freaking rolled right up and hit you!" Jim replied. 

"Maybe if you guys weren't playing so obnoxiously the ball wouldn't have had that much force to hit me you asshole." Josh said, holding his head in pain.

"Dude, I didn't do that. That shit happened on its own..." Jim trailed off, eyes widened in disbelief of what he just saw. Josh flipped him off and plopped down onto the bleachers in anger. Jim looked around the gym and saw that no one else noticed what he just witnessed. He sighed and grabbed the ball to jog back over to the game, deciding to disregard his thoughts.

Jerica bursted out in laughter and smacked Ian on the arm. 

"Holy fuck. That was the best thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Fucking douchebag deserved it!" She said through laughter, completely missing that the ball's speed increased on its own and also rolled up the bleachers unnaturally. 

She looked over at Ian whose head hung low looking down at his feet. Her face instantly dropped into concern and she lightly put a hand on to her friend's shoulder. 

"Ian? What's wrong?" She asked sounding worried.

"Uh, Yeah. Yeah I'm fine. Just got really tired for a second but I think I'm good now." He said, raising his head back up slowly feeling an increase of energy.

"Good. Can't have you dying over here on me. I don't know CPR and shit." She teased and looked down at her phone once realizing Ian was fine. 

Ian glanced over at Josh who was now pouting over to the opposite side of the gym. Ian furrowed his brow thinking how _weird_ that just was, but decided to shrug it off. Maybe it was just a coincidence he thought. He turned to Jerica to help him kill the thoughts that were currently stirring in his head. 

"So don't make fun of me, but I gotta be honest with you." He said and Jerica instantly put the phone down.

"You're not actually gay?" She guessed with wide eyes. 

"What? No. Jesus I'm 100% gay." Ian chuckled and she smirked indicating that she had only been teasing him. He continued, "So I'm kind of old for a freshman. I'm gonna be 17 next month. Just sort of embarrassing to be a 17 year old freshman, you know? Also... I've never been to a party before. I haven't really had a whole lot of friends. Never had an interest before meeting you guys since I just end up having to move anyway."

"I knew you were older. No way a freshman could be so chill. Who the fuck cares about age, though? If you're a cool person than I don't care how old you are unless you're like a 12 year old girl or something. Don't be embarassed about being an older freshman either. Mick was a freshman for two years in a row and I love that fucker. Who cares." She said and Ian's heart fluttered hearing Jerica say _his_ name. 

Ian started to softly smile seeing how much of an accepting person she was. She sniffed and ran a hand through her long her to brush it over to the side.

"Now to address the whole never being to a party thing: bitch are you crazy? We're gonna go hard tonight then! Your first high school party's gotta be your most memorable so let me take care of that. Tonight's gonna be lit!" 

"Christ. Lit?" Ian questioned and shook his head at her in amusement as she blew him a sarcastic kiss. 

"You know, I've got a confession of my own." She said, face looking completey serious now. 

Ian furrowed his brow. "What is it?"

"I'm actually Cat Woman. This is just my alter ego." She said looking Ian dead in the eyes. She bursted out into laughter and put a hand on Ian's shoulder as he narrowed his eyes at her. 

"Ian, as my new friend, I don't want you to ever feel like you can't talk to me about anything. Anything at all. I'm probably the most accepting person you're ever going to meet and I never want you to feel like I'd think any less of you for silly things like that. There's absolutely no need to ever feel embarrassed or bad about who you are, okay?"

Ian nodded and she smiled before looking down at her phone again. He really liked Jerica and how straight forward she was with him. He needed that in his life more than he realized. He then thought about how excited he was for tonight. _I bet Mickey will be there, too._ He thought to himself. Ian couldn't help himself from wishing that the other man was gay. Ian sighed, knowing his crush on a straight guy was hopeless. 

The bell rang and they got down from the bleachers to head to Ian's favorite class. He felt his heart starting to race and palms sweating, getting all worked up over this handsome _straight_ guy with with beautiful blue eyes and dark hair. He shook the thoughts away immediately and followed Jerica into the crowded hallway.


	5. What's Wrong?

"Ask Lip about tonight yet?" Mandy asked as they all surrounded Jerica's locker to drop off their books for the long weeknd.

"Not yet. I don't usually see him until after school unless it's for two seconds in passing. Don't worry, I'll ask him." Ian said with a smirk, knowing exactly why Mandy cared if Lip would be going or not.

"Who even said he's fuckin interested in you, Mands? He's a senior and you're a freshman." Mickey interrupted, putting his books into Jerica's locker as she was looking down at her phone.

"You know that's never a problem for me, assface." 

"Jesus. You ever get tired of trying to fuck every guy in town?"

Mandy furrowed her brow as if she needed to actually think about it before answering. 

"No. Not really." She replied with a shrug.

Josh approached them at the lockers and Mickey crossed his arms while glaring at him, sizing him up. He could _definitely_ take him, he decided.

Ian instantly felt a weird feeling inside of him. It was similar to the one in gym class. He tried his best to shake it off and looked over at The Hair.

"The fuck you want?" Mickey asked.

"So Jerica. I hear you're having a party tonight." Josh questioned, his asshole friends behind him.

She immediately looked up from her phone and raised an eyebrow, purely interested that he was trying to talk to her without insults. She slammed the locker door shut with her fist noticing Mickey was done with unloading his books.

"What's it to ya? Don't you have to go home and deep condition your hair or some shit?" She questioned. 

Before she turned to walk away from the locker to leave the school, Josh interrupted her.

"No. Actually I was wondering if we could maybe come?" He asked motioning to his two friends on either side of him, sounding desperate. 

Jerica stopped and dramatically turned around to face them and smile sarcastically. "Abso-fucking-lutely not."

"We can bring booze and bud. Some really good bud, too. Please? There's fuck all to do here and you know that. C'mon, Jer."

She sniffed. Her eyes moved to Mandy who was shrugging along with Ian with a similar expression on his face that read 'why the fuck not'. She didn't even bother to look at Mickey assuming he was strongly against it. Jerica sighed.

"Alright. You better follow through with the booze and weed. Oh, and Josh? I decided you can come on one condition."

"Sure. Anything! I'm really sorry for always being a tool, if an apology is what you were gonna ask for."

Jerica chuckled darkly. "Nope. The only thing I need from you is I need to know your secret."

Josh furrowed his brow as did his friends. "My secret?"

"Yeah. How do you get those luscious locks of yours to stay so goddamn perfect all day long? I swear any hair spray I use just wouldn't ever do it justice." Jerica teased. 

Josh rolled his eyes and turned around to walk away, flipping her off.

"I'll Facebook message you the details, Joshy Poo!" She yelled.

"Why the fuck would you invite Josh?" Mickey pressed as they started to head to the door.

"Free bud and more booze. Duh?"

Mickey rolled his eyes. Ian tried to glance at him through his peripheral until Mickey caught him. The redhead quickly turned his head to the side pretending he wasn't just staring at Mickey. The brunette brought a small smile to his face momentarily knowing Ian couldn't see it while he was looking away.

They made it to the front steps of the school, sunshine starting to break through the clouds. This was a sign to Ian that tonight was going to be a good night. Jerica stopped to pull out her buzzing phone. 

"Yes, mother?" She answered in a sigh, starting to walk over to the side of the school so her friends couldn't hear the conversation. 

Mandy snickered. Mickey shot her a glare. "Ay. Kathy's the closest thing we've got to a mother. She always takes care of us when Terry's pathetic ass never has. I don't get why you give in to Jerica's whole 'mom sucks' bullshit when her mom has been nothing but nice to us."

Ian slowly nodded his head understanding that it was definitely a teenage girl thing. "My sister's the same way. Our mom's really great, actually. Fiona just fucking hates her for no reason and it kind of makes me sad. Our mom basically raises us on her own while my dad's not always able to be around because of his job. So Fiona really has no reason to hate her."

Mickey cocked his head to the side slightly, going in to deep thought wishing he could still have both of his parents together. His mom died when he was only a baby. He never knew how she died as Terry refused to ever talk about it. If Mickey or Mandy tried to ask about her, he would hit them. Then they'd have to go to school with skin covered in bruises and teachers would always ask what happened. Mandy would lie and always blame it on her lack of being coordinated. Mickey wouldn't talk at all and bottled everything up inside. Until one day, he started to release his anger in aggression by pushing and punching other students, trying to make them feel how his father made him feel.

He was a troubled kid growing up, always finding himself in situations with outcomes of no good. He had been caught shoplifting on multiple occasions, getting into fights at school, constantly getting suspended, even running away. Terry didn't give a shit if either of his kids were dead or alive as he was too drunk to function to care. Mickey snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Ian's voice speaking to him. 

"Mickey?"

"Yeah?"

"I said I have to go. Mandy's over there with Jerica talking to her mom. I wanted to let you know I'll text her in a little bit after I talk to Lip. Could you just let her know, please?"

Mickey ran his fingers through his hair as he was starting to come back down to reality. He glanced over at Ian who was staring into his eyes intensely. He could tell Mickey was in distress and he wanted to comfort him but didn't know how to. He concentrated hard, continuing to stare deep into his blue eyes and then he suddenly blanked out.

Mickey instantly felt a sense of unexplainable comfort flood over him. He furrowed his brow as he felt like he shouldn't be feeling comfort after thinking about his fucked up home life. It's something that always stressed him out. But when he tried to think and force himself to break the feeling of comfort knowing there was nothing comforting about his life, it was almost as if _something_ was stopping him. Like a he had an emotional force field protecting him and only allowing him to feel peace and comfort for that moment. Ian broke his gaze as he noticed Mickey starting to look uneasy. 

The redhead let out an exasperated sigh and bent over to begin lightly panting, feeling exhausted. _How the fuck did I just do that?_ Ian thought to himself, remembering how he felt in the gym only a few hours ago was the same exact feeling he had now. 

Mickey looked intently at Ian. He had never felt anything like that before. He wondered if Ian felt it to, but realized he didn't look so good. Mickey put his hand gently on the redhead's shoulder. 

"Ian, are you okay?" Mickey questioned, facial expression still puzzled by the temporary spell he was just under.

Ian lifted his head up slowly, starting to feel his energy recharge.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah I just felt really weird for a minute but I think I'm good now. Tell Jerica what I said, okay? I gotta go now, Lip's waiting. See you tonight." Ian said as he started to walk past the brunette and down the path leading to the parking lot. 

Mickey watched him as he walked away, feeling like he was somehow close to Ian a few moments ago. As if something completely unexplainable happened where in that moment, Ian could see into his mind and could knock down his walls. He felt whatever just happened to himself moments ago was unnatural but didn't scare him. Mickey wanted to chase after Ian and ask if he felt it, too. His thoughts were quickly interrupted by Jerica walking over to him, now off the phone with her mom and Mandy following close behind.

"Where's Ian?" She asked trying to search for red hair in the crowd of students. 

"Had to go." Mickey answered bluntly, still staring in Ian's direction and facial expression blank.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"I'll tell you when I figure it out."


	6. The Party

"Got any plans tonight?" Ian asked his brother while he stuck his arm out of the window of the Camaro, enjoying the sunshine.

"Nope. Was going to ask Fiona what her plans were. Mom sent me a text last period saying she wasn't going to be home until real late tonight. Said she was having a date night with dad when he gets out at nine tonight so we have the house to ourselves for a bit." Lips said, driving down the road that seemed to be never-ending. 

"You wanna go to a party tonight? Jerica's parents are gonna be away for the long weekend and she's having some people over. Mandy really wants you to come." Ian made sure to include that bit of information to 'help a girl out' as Mandy would say.

Lip sniffed and took a drag from his cigarette. 

"Some guy said he's bringing some bud, too. And extra booze. C'mon, it'll be fun. It's not like Vernonia is gonna be lit tonight."

Lip choked out smoke in a small laugh.

"Christ, Ian. Did you just say 'lit'?"

Ian chuckled, realizing Jerica was already rubbing off on him. 

"So you'll go?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not, right? I'll stop off at the store to make sure I get my own drinks. You fucking freshmen probably drink the frilly shit like Smirnoff Ice or Mike's Hard or some other dumb shit under an 8% alcoholic volume." Lip teased, changing his direction from home to the store.

Once they got to the store, Ian had to stay in the car as he didn't have a fake ID. While Lip was inside buying his alcohol, Ian pulled out his phone to see he had two text messages. 

**Jerica (2:56PM):** U need a ride or nah

And the other message was from an unknown number that just said 'Hey'. He decided to answer Jerica first.

 **Ian (3:03PM):** Nope. Lip's gonna bring me. We're at the store now stocking up for tonight. What time should we come over?

 **Jerica (3:05PM):** Mandy's fucking pumped lol. Be here for 7. My address is 37 Lakeview Drive

 **Jerica (3:06PM):** Mickey said to answer his message =)

Ian's heart fluttered. He exited the thread with Jerica and went to the message from the unknown number. _Relax. He probably just wanted to ask about Chemistry class or something._ Ian thought to himself, not wanting to get his hopes up too high. He had typed and backspace at least four times before finally sending the message. 

**Ian (3:08PM):** Hi there. Who's this?

 _'Hi there'? Fuck, I'm so lame._ His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the quick response. 

**Mickey (3:09PM):** Ur fucking fairy God mother - Jerica already told U who it is.

 **Ian (3:10PM):** Lol yeah I just read her message. What's up?

_Real fucking smooth, Ian._

**Mickey (3:10PM):** U bringing anyone tonight that isn't blood related?

Ian's heart stopped. He stared at the message for a moment wondering why Mickey would be asking him something like that. _Why would he care if he's not..._

 **Mickey (3:11PM):** Jer wants to know.

Ian sighed. He knew it was too good to be true. For a split second he wondered why Jerica couldn't just ask him, but he dismissed the thought. 

**Ian (3:12PM):** Nope. Just Lip

 **Mickey (3:12PM):** Good. 

Ian raised a questioning eyebrow. 

**Ian (3:13PM):** Good?

He looked up to see Lip approaching the car with two paper bags. Ian looked back down at his phone waiting for a response. Nothing. Lip opened the car down and Ian immediately put the phone in his pocket causing his brother to furrow his brow. 

"Looking at porn or something?" Lip teased, continuing to put the bags behind the seat. 

Ian blushed and shook his head suspiciously. "Um, no. It's nothing."

Lip stopped and looked at his red-faced, redheaded brother. He raised an eyebrow. 

"It's nothing? Definitely looks like something."

"Nope. Nothing. What'd you get?" Ian tried to change the topic.

Lip sat down in the seat and faced Ian.

"A handle of Captain Morgan for me. A couple of Olde English bottles for you. Now tell me why the hell you're acting So fucking weird."

"I uh. Well, it's complicated I guess."

"Ian, you just came out to me like three days ago. I think I can handle it. You can trust me."

Ian sighed. Lip was right, he could trust him. "Well, there's this guy... And he's sorta straight. I think? No, I know he's straight. Maybe. Anyway, he's sort of my friend and he's really cute but he's totally not in to me that way. So like I said, complicated."

Lip furrowed his brow and looked to the side, thinking about Ian's friends. His eyes widened and he let out a small laugh, immediately covering his mouth to hold back more laughter. 

"Sorry. But shut the fuck up. That short dude that looks like he takes candy from kids for a living?" 

Ian sighed heavily, unamused. "He does not take candy from kids. He's actually Mandy's older brother. He's supposed to be a senior but he got held back, so he's 17."

"Yeah, he's in my food works class. Mickey, right?"

Ian blushed and nodded, turning his head to the side so his brother couldn't see him smiling like a dork. 

"Well, uh, good luck with that. I don't really get the while gay vibe from him, but you never know. Is he gonna be there tonight?"

"Yeah. That's who I was texting before you came back."

"Ah. Well that makes sense why you were acting all weird. So what's he saying?"

Ian bit the inside of his cheek, still getting used to talking about his interest in men with his brother.

"He asked if I was bringing anyone other than you."

Lip widened his eyes. "And you're sure he's not gay?"

"Well, today we kind of had a _moment._ I dunno. It was sort of weird but not?"

"Weird but not, huh? Alright, well I'm not counting him not being gay out of the picture just yet."

Lip dropped it, being able to tell his brother was looking a bit uncomfortable. Ian looked down at his phone and saw he had another message, hoping it was from his crush. 

**Jerica (3:26PM):** I need to talk to U tonight about something. Can't wait to see U later!

Ian stared at the message for longer than he realized as before he knew it, they were already home. He headed right up to his room and slammed the door shut behind him. He went to the closet to look for something good to wear tonight. He _had_ to look good. He finally decided on a pair of blue fitted jeans with a rip on the right kneed that was supposed to be there for style along with a back v-neck t-shirt and his brown TOMS chukka boots. It was only 4pm and he was already set to go.

The time went by slowly but it was finally time to go. Lip was dressed similarly except his shirt was a dark gray color with black jeans. They made it down the stairs to find Fiona on the couch watching Teen Mom. Lip chuckled darkly. 

"Taking notes, Fi?" Lip teased.

"Fuck off. Where are you two going? Someone smells like they rolled around inside of fuckin Abercrombie or some shit." She asked, grimacing.

Ian blushed knowing it was himself who had put on a little bit too much cologne. 

"Going to Jerica Smith's party. Wanna come?" Lip offered.

"Fuck no. I'm not trying to hang out with a bunch of freshmen."

"Well Jerica's a sophomore and she invited some seniors and a few other sophomores and juniors. You sure you don't wanna come?" Ian asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm not trying to commit social suicide." She said, turning her head back to the TV.

"Suit yourself then." Lip said as he opened the door to head to the car.

They had trouble finding Jerica's house as it was hurried into the woods which was good for the party's sake as cops aren't usually down near her house. There were about 15 cars already parked on the lawn and the music was blaring to the point of being able to hear it from outside of the house. Lip looked at Ian with a puzzled look.

"I thought you said it was a small get together?"

"I guess small has a different meaning to her." Ian chuckled, feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves rushing over him. 

Lip shrugged and got out of the car, booze in hand. They made it to the front door and opened the door to see people crowding in the living room to the right, passing a bong. Other people were in the open room to the left playing beer pong. Lip instantly went over to the people passing the bong. Ian looked around, but didn't see any of his friends. He decided to mingle even though the thought of being social with people he didn't know who were probably stoned and trashed was a bit unnerving. _You got this. Don't be fucking weird._

He made his way to the kitchen and finally found Jerica making out with some blond girl while a group of guys crowded around them, filming them with their phones. Jerica pulled away and threw her hands up in excitement. 

"I told you I could steal your girl, Brad! That'll be 30 bucks. Pay up, bitch!" Jerica yelled over the loudness of the music drunkenly at Brad as his girlfriend looked at Jerica with flirty eyes.

Ian shook his head in amusement and laughed to himself. Her hazel eyes were now glassy and bloodshot but made their way to Ian's and she screamed. "Ian!"

She shoved through the blond girl who she just moments ago made question her sexuality. Jerica jumped on Ian wrapping her limbs around him like a spider monkey. He laughed and wrapped his arms around her, walking towards the fridge wbile carrying her. Jerica finally released and dropped to the floor. Ian got a good look at her. She was wearing a black baggy long sleeved shirt with black shorts. She had on black thigh high socks with all black high top Converse. And without a doubt, Ian could tell she was sloshed.

"I know it's only like 7:30, but I'm kinda drunk." She giggled out.

"No shit. Hey, I thought you said there weren't gonna be that many people here?"

Jerica looked around and laughed. "Oops. Oh well. Now let's get a drink!" She yelled and grabbed on to his hand to pull him off to the attached garage where her drinks were stashed. 

It was a two-car garage filled with miscellaneous power tools and old bicycles along with pieces of yard equipment. Ian looked to the right at her stash with wide eyes. 

"This is all for you?" He asked, a bit concerned with the amount of alcohol he was looking at.

"No, silly! This is for you, me, Mick and Mandy. We wanted your first party to be a memorable one! Or uh, hopefully not able to remember."

Ian chuckled. He liked drunk Jerica. She grabbed a red cup and poured some vodka into it and pulled out a second cup to pour into that one as well. She handed one to Ian and smiled, slightly swaying.

"Here's to a night you won't remember with people you'll never forget!" She toasted and clinked her red solo cup to his. 

They both downed the shot and she made a small groaning noise and shook it off. Ian did the same, feeling the burn of the alcohol going down his throat. That was his very first taste of alcohol in his life. He knew that he was really in for it if one little sip made him start to feel warmth inside of him. 

"Make yourself a drink and meet me at the pong table. We're gonna kick ass!" Jerica said as she grabbed a beer and stumbled to the door.

"Wait. You said you had something to tell me." Ian interjected. 

She turned around and her eyes lit up. She walked over to Ian and slapped her hands onto either side of Ian's cheeks. 

"Okay, don't tell anyone. Promise?" She said, words starting to slur.

"I promise."

"Pinky promise this shit, bitch. I'm serious!" She said holding up a shakey pinky.

Ian wrapped his pinky around hers and she looked to both sides just to make sure no one was there.

"So, Mickey's gay. But that's not the secret. Well, it is because no one but Mandy and I know. Well, and now you. But that's not the secret I want to tell you."

Ian felt butterflies fluttering uncontrollably. "So what's the secret?"

"He thinks you're sexy. Like, a lot. He said he's gonna..."

She stopped, whipping her head to the side to look at the door. "I fucking love this song! Meet me at the beer pong table so we can kick some ass." She repeated as she started to run to the door. " _We found love in a hopeless place!_ " She started to sing along.

"Wait! Jerica, he's gonna what? What is he gonna do?"

She was already consumed by the music and her drunken stooper to hear him. She closed the door behind her and Ian sighed. He grabbed a bottle of beer deciding not to drink the Olde English that Lip got him as it looked pretty ghetto. He felt the bass of the music thudding into his chest and he made his way to the door. Ian opened the door to find himself standing face to face with Mickey. 

"Oh, sorry." Ian apologized.

"S'fine. Jerica show you our stash, I see?" He asked, ignoring the awkward run-in. 

"Yeah, thank you for making sure I'm set for tonight." Ian said nervously. 

"Sure." The brunette answered lighting up a cigarette and taking a long drag.

Ian wasn't sure what had come over him, but confidence began to build up inside of him. He put down the beer bottle and grabbed the bottle of vodka. _Bottoms up._ He started to chug.

Mickey stared at him in surprise, not realizing he dropped his cigarette on the ground. Ian stopped chugging and brought the bottle over his head to yell a loud "Woo!"

Mickey laughed and picked his cigarette up. "Easy, red. You're gonna end up like Jerica real fuckin quick."

Ian felt the heat coursing through his veins. He grabbed his beer bottle and got closer to Mickey. He was now standing at arms length. Ian took a long swig of his beer, keeping his emerald green eyes on Mickey the whole time. The brunette swallowed, nerves clearly taking over him. 

"So, whatcha doing in here?" Ian questioned. 

He could sense Mickey's nerves as if they were radiating right off of him. Almost as if he could feel the brunette's vibes coming right from his soul. The feeling was transcendental. He stood still and continued to smirk at Mickey. 

"Wanted to have a butt." Mickey said.

"Yeah?" Ian questioned, taking a small step forward. "Is that the only reason?" He challenged. 

Mickey stared into Ian's eyes trying to decide what his next move should be. Ian took another stop closer. Their noses were just barely touching. Mickey closed his eyes.

"Can you feel that?" Ian asked, feeling a sensation of lust coming over him. He also felt tipsy now, but that wasn't what he was referring to.

Mickey didn't answer. He kept his eyes shut. Ian slowly brought his hand up to Mickey's cheek, gently brushing his fingers across his soft skin and raking them into his dark hair.

"Do you feel it, Mick?" Ian pressed as he ran his fingers through the man's hair.

Mickey rolled his head over to the side and then up. Ian grabbed Mickey's U-Up hand and interlocked their fingers. Ian brought his face to Mickey's ear and whispered. 

"Do you want me, Mickey?"

Ian looked down to see the brunette had large bulge growing in his pants. He smirked.

"Say it." Ian challenged.

He slightly moved his neck back to bring his face directly in front of Mickey's. Ian closed his eyes, copying the brunette. 

"Say it, and you can have me." Ian repeated. 

Mickey's eyes suddenly opened. Ian somehow sensed that the man's had opened so he followed suit. Ian stared into the brunette's bloodshot bright blue eyes for a moment, all as if time and space stopped and it was only them.

"Mick-"

Ian started to say as Mickey interrupted him by crashing his lips against the redhead's. Ian brought his arms up to wrap them around Mickey's neck. The brunette wrapped his arms around Ian's waist and began to walk forward slowly until Ian's back hit the wall.

The kiss deepened as Mickey opened his mouth and began to lick and bite Ian's lower lip. The redhead moaned into the kiss and raked his fingers through the man's hair. Ian pressed his body onto Mickey's, the brunette feeling the latter's erection painfully against him. Mickey grabbed the back of Ian's thigh and pulled it up to his hip to press into him even closer. Mickey began to roll his pelvis on to Ian, rubbing his throbbing hard cock on to Ian's. 

Ian gripped onto the brunette's hair tightly as Mickey continued to dry-hump him. Ian ran his hand down the man's chest and down to his belt buckle. He slowly moved his hand down and started to rub the brunette's dick through his jeans, painfully making him crave more. 

Mickey broke from their kiss and moved his lips into the crook of Ian's neck.

"Want you now." Mickey breathed out, nibbling on Ian's ear.

Ian brought his leg down and pulled Mickey's hair back slightly. He brought his mouth back on to Mickey's craving more. Needing more. Once he had a small taste, he knew he was addicted for life. Mickey let out a soft man and Ian knew he was instantly wrecked. 

The basement door flung open. Mickey pushed Ian back and took a step away to see who was about to enter the garage. Lip stumbled in carrying Mandy. They had been laughing through kisses until Mandy's gaze moved to her brother and Ian. She screamed, startled thinking that she and Lip were alone in the garage. Lip dropped her onto her feet and once she noticed her brother panting with messy hair and swollen red lips, she realized what was going on. She brought her hand up to her mouth beginning to giggle. 

"Oh my fucking God." She said over the music that was now significantly louder as the door was still open.

Lip looked over at Ian and raised an eyebrow. Ian blushed beet red. 

"Were you two just about to fuck?" Mandy yelled over the music.

"Shut the fuck up and close the door!" Mickey yelled back.

She giggled and walked over to the door to pull it shit. She looked back at her brother.

"So were you?" She repeated. 

"Probably." Mickey sniffed, answering with confidence. 

The confidence he felt was something that he'd never felt before. It felt like earlier, as if something was _making_ him feel more confident. He looked at Ian who was staring at the other side of the garage, looking completely focused. Mickey furrowed his brow and moved his gaze back to Mandy. 

"Sorry, Mick. By all means, carry on. We'll just go up to Jerica's room... Shit, Ian are you okay?"

She interrupted herself as she saw Ian bent over slightly and lightly panting. 

"Yeah, I'm fine." He answered as he slowly brought his head up and began to stand back up straight. 

Mickey looked at Ian and thought back to earlier when the redhead did this. He started to question if Ian was the one making him feel these strange feelings, but brushed the thoughts away deciding it was just the alcohol.

"Let's go find Jerica and play some pong. I bet Josh I could beat him for 50 bucks. I need to play that fucker and collect." Mickey said.

He started to walk to the door after grabbing his beer and Ian followed close behind. As they went back into the crowded house with drunk teenagers, Mandy looked up at Lip and shrugged. Lip smirked and picked her back up, kicking the door shut.

Ian took a swig of his beer as he watched his crush dominate at beer pong. He was starting to realize that he could make Mickey _feel_ things. He also wondered if maybe he did move that ball in gym class. He decided to test his abilities to be certain.

Josh tossed the ping pong ball and Ian could tell it was going to land right in Mickey's cup. Ian concentrated hard, completely shutting everything out and focusing. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion momentarily. Suddenly, he pushed the ball slightly to the left with his thoughts and Josh yelled in defeat. 

"50 bucks, bitch!" Mickey yelled and The Hair pulled out the cash out of his wallet to hand it over to the smirking brunette. 

Mickey looked over to Ian who was bent over again and panting. His brow furrowed and he leaned over to get closer to Ian's head as the music continued to play loudly in the background. 

"Ian, what's going on?"

"I... I'm not sure yet."

Ian stood back up, feeling energized more quickly this time. Jerica ran over to Mickey to congratulate him for beating Josh. She turned around to face the losing opponent.

"Suck on that, motherfucker!" She yelled and turned around to slap her hand onto her ass.

Josh rolled his eyes and headed for the living room to take a hit from the bong that was still being passed around.

"Let's go smoke." She suggested, following Josh to the living room.

Mickey nodded and followed her. Ian stood there for a moment, slightly in shock over his newly discovered abilities. He wondered how he was able to do the things be could do and why he was somehow able to do them now but never before. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted. 

"Ian! You coming?" Jerica yelled.

Ian nodded and walked toward the room where Jerica and Mickey were. He decided not to think about it until the morning and to just enjoy the rest of his night. The party was already going pretty well, he thought. He didn't want to ruin it. Tomorrow, he would try to find out more about what was going on with him. For tonight, he'd smoke weed and drink until he blacked out with his new friends that he was very grateful for meeting. _Especially_ Mickey.


	7. Never Drinking Again

Ian's eyes began to flutter open slowly as the morning light started to break through the window. He moved his eyes to look around the room he was in, not recognizing his surroundings. A wave of nausea flooded over him and he closed his eyes, gripping at the floor he was laying on. He was trying to stay still while the room felt like it was spinning uncontrollably. His mind was hazy and his head throbbed in pain. He felt movement next to him but didn't have the strength to look. He let out a loud groan and the person next to him chuckled darkly.

"Morning, sunshine. How's your first hangover?" The voice asked, sounding distorted.

Ian replied with another groan. He very slowly moved his head to the right to see blue eyes staring back at him.

"Mickey" He whispered, barely audible. 

Mickey chuckled and sat up feeling fine. He knew how to pace himself but unfortunately the redhead beside him did not know what pacing yourself meant.

"I'm surprised you're even breathing right now. Do you realize how much alcohol you consumed last night?" Mickey questioned. 

The word 'alcohol' made Ian instantly gag. He fluttered his eyes open again, vision starting to become more clear as he saw the perfect looking dark haired man infront of him smiling. He moved his eyes around the room and barely remembered that this was Jerica's parents' room. 

"Fuck." Ian muttered under his breath. "Did I uh.. Did we.."

"You think I'm some sort of fucking animal that would take advantage of you while you're piss drunk? Course we didn't." Mickey said defensively. 

Ian lightly nodded once, causing the spinning feeling to increase. 

"Just wanted to ask incase I was fucking weird or bad at it or something." Ian whispered out.

Mickey changed his demeanor. He let out a small laugh. "So you don't care that I could have taken advantage of you but you do care to know if _I_ enjoyed myself. Jesus, Gallagher. You're really something else."

Ian let out a soft chuckle. He liked hearing Mickey say his name.

"But to answer the second part of your question, yes, you were kinda fuckin weird. Do you remember anything from last night?"

Ian furrowed his brow and closed his eyes to think. He vaguely remembered what happened in the garage which made him cringe as he _never_ pursued anyone like that nor did ever have the confidence to. He brushed the thought out of his head and began to remember bits and pieces. He opened his eyes and looked at Mickey with concern. _Fuck. He's not talking about the ping pong ball, is he?_

To be safe, Ian slowly shook his head no. Mickey sighed.

"You would fucking space out for moments at a time, looking like you were really deep in thought. Like we're talkin 'bout contemplating the entire existence of life type of deep thoughts. And then suddenly you'd just bend over to catch your breath like you ran a marathon or something. But right after that, you'd be fine. I don't know, it was kinda weird as fuck." Mickey said as he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. 

Ian's eyes widened. "Did anyone else notice?"

"I don't fucking know? I didn't follow you around all night. I'm not your keeper." Mickey replied, looking to the side knowing he _did_ follow Ian around all night.

Ian forced himself to abruptly sit up. Mickey put a hand on his shoulder as Ian's face scrunched. 

"Easy, Gallagher. Let me get Lip up to help you."

Ian nodded slowly. As Mickey walked out of the room, Ian felt his heart race. He couldn't tell Mickey about his new discoveries. Maybe the only happened in his mind and he didn't actually do any of it.. Or maybe he did. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to see he had 17 missed calls from Monica and a text message from Fiona.

 **Fiona (1:36AM):** You two are SO busted. 

"Fuck." Ian whispered. Out of habit, he hit call to return Monica's 17 failed attempts. She answered on the first ring.

"Ian!"

"Shhhh. Too loud." He groaned into the phone.

"What? Ian, are you and Lip safe? Where are you!"

"We're fine, Mom. We're both at my friend's house. Everything is fine I promise. We'll be home soon."

Monica let out a loud sigh of relief. "You scared the shit out of me, Ian. We'll talk when you get home. I love you. Tell Lip he's in _big_ trouble."

"Love you too, Mom." He said and hung up the phone. 

He heard footsteps outside of the bedroom and looked over in the direction of the door that flung over. Jerica appeared, having a similar look that Ian did. She put her hand on her head and walked closer to slowly plop down on the floor beside him. She let out a groan.

"We went way too hard last night. I think I'm still fucking drunk." She mumbled.

Ian laughed lightly, not wanting to make any sudden movement. She rolled onto her side to look at Ian.

"So did you and Mickey hook up last night? I think I told you about him wanting to, but I was honestly too trashed to remember."

Ian chuckled. "Yeah, we hooked up."

Her eyes lit up. "Hell fucking yeah. Did you guys bang or?" She asked blatantly.

Ian lightly shook his head in amusement. "No, Jer. We didn't bang. We just madeout and stuff but it got pretty heated until Mandy and my brother stumbled into the garage and interrupted us."

"Motherfuckers." She muttered, closing her eyes as the nausea intensified. 

"Pretty much." Ian sighed.

Moments later, Mickey and Lip came into the bedroom. Lip smirked looking down at his little brother who was having his first hangover. Lip snickered. 

"How's it going, little bro? Feeling mint this morning?" Lip teased.

"Fuck off." Ian replied.

"Shit, Jerica. You look like the fuckin walking dead." Mickey teased as he observed her raccoon eyes with black makeup running down and hair looking knotted. 

She replied by silently holding her middle finger up. Lip squinted to see a E on her middle finger and then looked down at her hands.

"Over come? As in, cumming a lot or getting over an obstacle in life?" Lip asked sarcastically. 

"As in shut your fucking mouth, is what it is. At least mine has meaning of perseverance and shit unlike fuckwad over there who has fuck you up tatted on his knuckles. Still think you look like a jackass for that, Mick."

Lip laughed as Mickey sniffed and brought his hand to his nose. 

"You're fuckin' lucky that you're practically my little sister or else I'd be roasting your ass right now."

Jerica smiled sarcastically. "You fucking love me."

Mickey rolled his eyes and walked over to Ian. "Alright, let's get carrot top up."

Ian looked at his brother. "Mom called 17 times."

Lip scratched his head. "Yeah, I know. She called me a couple dozen times too. Did you call her or anything?"

"Yeah. Just spoke with her a few minutes ago. We're pretty much fucked."

Lip chuckled and grinned. "I always find a way to get out of it. Don't worry. Now let's get you up."

Mickey went behind Ian to wrap his arms around the redhead's waist. He pulled him up until Ian began to gain his balance. He swayed a bit at first, but soon was able to stand still even though it felt like he was still spinning. 

"Fuck this. I'm never drinking again." Ian mumbled out.

They all laughed and Mickey grinned. "That's what they all say."

Lip and Ian headed down the stairs and to the door, Mickey following behind. Before opening the door, Lip turned around to face the brunette. 

"Just wanted to say thanks for taking care of my little brother. Means a lot."

Ian blushed and looked down.

"That's what friends are for." Mickey replied dryly. 

Lip raised an eyebrow. "Ah, right. Friends. See you later, yeah?"

Lip turned back around and opened the door to walk Ian out to his car. Mickey watched until they got into the car and drove off. He shut the door and looked around at the mess and sleeping teenagers all over Jerica's house. He sighed and went upstairs to make sure Jerica wasn't dying.

He didn't see her, but heard noises coming from the bathroom that was included in her parents' room. He sniffed and walked towards the bathroom, giving a light knock before entering. He found Jerica basically hugging the toilet and snickered. 

"Had one too many, eh?"

"Fuck off." She mumbled, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. 

Mickey grabbed a little Dixie cup from the stack that her parents kept in the bathrmoom and filled it with water before handing it over to her. She drank and and crumbled it up, tossing it to the floor.

"Ian told me about last night."

Mickey looked at her, trying everything he could to hold back a smile. 

"Oh yeah? What'd he say?"

"I think he really likes you, Mick. I haven't gotten to really talk to him about it _sober_ yet. But if we're all feeling up to it, maybe we should hang later? Plus, I'm sure Mandy wouldn't be opposed to seeing Lip again."

Mickey couldn't hold back the smile any longer. Jerica grinned softly, feeling happy for her bestfriend. 

"I'll text him later and see if he's up for it. Where is Mandy, by the way?" He asked. 

Jerica closed her eyes, feeling nauseous again. 

"My bedroom floor. She and Lip passed out there before I made it to my bed last night."

Mickey nodded. He wanted to text Ian right now and ask about hanging out later, but decided against it. He didn't want to come off as desperate so he walked out of the bathroom and headed out of the room towards the bathroom in the hall. He heard something from outside and pushed back the curtain slightly that was above the toilet. There was a black van parked at the beginning of her driveway. He narrowed his eyes, trying to squint to see who was in it but the windows were tinted. 

It gave him an uneasy feeling. He brushed it off momentarily and moved away from the window to start the shower. Before stepping into the glorious heat of the spray, he checked outside the window one last time to see that the van was no longer there. He shrugged off the weird feeling he had and stepped into the shower, enjoying the hot beads of water pounding into his back.


	8. Secrets

"Phillip Gallagher! You are in _big_ big trouble, mister!" Monica scolded. 

Lip and Ian were sitting at the dining room table while Monica was standing next to the table, up in arms about her sons leaving for the night and not telling her that they were leaving. 

Fiona walked in to the dining room and sat down to listen to Monica's overbearing parental lecture. She laughed as Monica was going off on a tangent about how they agreed to at least text her if they would be gone at a friend's house for the night.

"Jesus, Monica. Lip's 18 and Ian's gonna be 17 next month. I think it's time to pull the reins back a bit." Fiona laughed out sarcastically.

"Fiona, I don't need your input on this. They could have been kidnapped for Christ sakes! Lip, you could have put your brother in danger!" Monica yelled, throwing her hands up dramatically. 

"Mom, we're not little kids anymore. Like Fi just said, Ian's gonna be 17 next month. He doesn't need a babysitter. And I doubt anyone would kidnap us in the small town that we live in without people knowing about it. Everybody knows everything about everyone here. Fuck."

"Lip, I don't like you keeping secrets from us!" Monica cried out as Frank appeared in the room to stand next to his wife.

"No work today, Frank?" Fiona asked, furrowing her brow. 

He ignored her question. "Your mother's right, son. We don't appreciate you keeping secrets from us."

Lip widened his eyes and let out a humorless laugh. "Oh, the irony is too real right now."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Frank barked back.

"Are you joking right now? Your whole job is a secret. Christ, I'm sure there's shit that Mom doesn't even know about you. So don't try to lecture me on how you don't appreciate secrets." Lip argued.

"My job is for your better wellbeing. For _all_ of you. Don't you dare come at me with that nonsense." Frank defended.

Lip rolled is eyes in sheer aggravation. "Alright then, Pops. If it's for our wellbeing, then why the hell is there a black van sometimes parked outside of our house, huh? What are they watching us for if what you're doing isn't bad?"

"You watch your tone with me." Frank warned. 

Lip pushed further. "Answer my question! Do you or don't you have secrets that could most likely harm us? That aren't good for our well being? Are you even a scientist? What do you study? Do you stalk people in those vans, too?"

Frank closed his eyes and brought his hand up to his temples and began to lightly massage. 

"Lip, you know that conspiracy theory bullshit is exactly what I just said: Bullshit, right? No one is watching you. And yes, I'm a scientist. I study the growth of all kinds of organisms. I'm not part of some secret society nor do I stalk people nor do I hang out with Big Foot and aliens in Atlantis. Does that satisfy your twenty questions or shall I make you a tinfoil hat?"

Fiona let out a roaring laugh and Ian shot a glare in her direction. Monica put a hand on her husband's shoulder. 

"Frank.." She whispered, knowing the conversation was getting heated. 

Lip stood up, pushing his chair back forcefully. Ian instantly put all of his attention on his brother, feeling his anger and literally able to see it radiating off of him. Ian concentrated hard as Lip began to take a step forward toward Frank. Ian took a deep breath and watched as Lip stopped dead in his tracks. Ian pushed every ounce of focus that he had onto holding back his brother. Under the table, Ian cupped his hand, feeling himself being able to get a better grip of his brother that way. Lip furrowed his brow as he couldn't move his body and Ian began to send him calming feelings. Lip was uneasy and could feel that something was controlling him. He finally gave in, losing his strength.

Lip's face softened as he looked up at Frank. "Im.. Sorry, Dad."

Frank's eyes moved quickly to Ian who was still staring at his brother with deep concentration, sitting up in his seat rigidly. Frank narrowed his eyes slightly and looked back at Lip. 

"It's okay, Lip. I get that everyone is stressed about having to move all the time and I'm hoping we can stay in one place for a while sometime soon. I'm really sorry and truly appreciate you all for always being so understanding and patient with me."

Monica kissed her husband on the cheek and smiled at him. Fiona rolled her eyes at his seemingly phony apology. 

Ian released his mental grip that he had on his brother's movements and emotions. He let out an exasperated sigh, but didn't drop his head down like he had the last few times. He was getting better at controlling it. He felt slightly fatigued momentarily but nowhere near what it has consistently been. It lasted a matter of twenty seconds and he looked over at Frank, noticing his father's eyes were locked on to him. Ian broke the gaze, trying not to act suspicious.

Lip furrowed his brow and pushed in the chair. Without another word, He went upstairs to his room and slammed his door. Fiona followed suit. Ian watched as his siblings stormed off and then his eyes glanced up again to see that Frank was still staring. 

"Dad?" Ian questioned, hoping it wasn't because he just noticed what he did.

Frank snapped out of it and grinned. "Sorry, son. Long week. I've been finding myself spacing out a lot lately."

Ian nodded. Monica pulled out a chair and sat next to Ian.

"We'll, I'm off to work. I'll see you late tonight, Moni. Have a good day guys." Frank said as he grabbed his bag and headed out of the house to drive off to the lab.

Ian had never noticed until right now how phony Frank seemed to be. He also hadn't noticed he had mood controlling, telekenetic abilities either so that isn't saying much. Monica looked at the redhead in the eyes.

"Were you guys out at a party last night?" She asked, face concerned. 

Ian sighed. "Yeah."

She nodded and took a deep breath, trying to choose her words carefully. "I guess I can loosen the reins a bit. It's not like you're doing things that your father and I didn't do when we were your age. It's just hard to accept that my kids are really growing up." 

"Mom, I'm sorry that we didn't text to tell you that we were staying out. I promise it won't happen again."

Monica smiled softly. "I appreciate it, kiddo. And promise me one more thing?"

"What's up?" Ian asked.

"Promise me that when you meet a girl and start.. you know.. getting _close,_ you'll be safe. I gave the same talk to Lip and Fiona, but I just want to make sure you're being safe."

Ian swallowed. He instantly began to sweat and felt like screaming. He wanted to jump out of the window and run away. He looked down, preparing himself to finally come out to his mother after almost 17 years of his life.

"You don't have to worry about that." He muttered, almost inaudible.

Monica smiled softly. "Sweetie, I'm sure there's a girl out there who would be lucky to have you." 

Ian kept his eyes to the ground. He couldn't hold it in anymore. A tear drop rolled down his cheek. Monica dropped her smile immediately and put her hand on his cheek to wipe the tear away.

"Ian? What's wrong?"

Ian choked back more tears. He looked up at his mother with defeated eyes. _I can do this. I'm proud to be who I am._

"I need to tell you something. It's something big."

"You can tell me anything, baby. What's going on?"

He took a deep breath and continued to look into Monica's eyes. 

"Mom, I'm gay."

Monica stared at him for a few moments, looking unphased. He furrowed his brow, expecting her to cry or something. She didn't say anything. The silence was getting louder and louder and Ian couldn't take it anymore. Monica finally blinked, putting her hand back onto his cheek and smiling softly. 

"I'm so proud of you, Ian. More than you know. And I want you to know that I love you no matter what. Don't ever doubt that."

Ian smiled through his tears that were pouring out and nodded. Monica wrapped her arms around him and embraced tightly. He felt so much relief. It made him feel good to finally get this off of his chest. Monica pulled away, wiping away her own tears and smiled. 

"Why don't I make breakfast? I'm sure you and Lip are starving. Pancakes sound good?"

Ian nodded. Monica stood up and made her way to the kitchen. Ian turned his body to look out the window, wishing he could be with Mickey right now. His phone buzzed and he grabbed it out of his pocket. He looked at the text message and his heart fluttered. 

**Mickey (8:27AM):** Sorry if this makes me look clingy or whatever but me and Jerica and Mandy wanna know if U and Lip wanna hang later today?

Before Ian could answer, Lip appeared in the doorway.

"Ian, come here." He whispered. 

Ian put the phone in his pocket and walked over to Lip who looked riled up.

"Tonight. We're going down to the lab and we're going to investigate to see _exactly_ what Frank does. I don't buy his phony bullshit and I think he put some sort of weird fuckin' mind spell over me. I couldn't move and I felt really fucking weird back there when he was being a dick. So are you down? Fi already said she's down." Lip whispered with wild eyes. 

Ian blinked, suddenly getting a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He pulled out his phone to text Mickey back.

**Ian (8:30AM):** Meet us here at our house. 6pm sharp.

Ian put the phone back into his pocket and looked up at Lip. "Yeah, I'm down."


	9. Goonies Never Say Die

Ian was downstairs pacing back and forth infront of the door as the time was nearing six pm. Monica and Frank were at work and Fiona and Lip were sitting on the couch in the living room. Ian couldn't bring himself to actually sit down and relax. He started to worry that maybe having Mickey, Jerica and Mandy involved with spying on his father's lab might not be the best idea. He had no idea what was going to happen or what they were going to find. He moved his pacing into the living room so that he could hear his siblings. 

"This is kind of a bad idea, Lip. I don't know if I wanna go anymore."

"Oh no you don't, Fi. You're not backing out on me now. You used to be this tough badass chick and now you're being a scared little bitch? I don't wanna be watched all day by some government fuckwads and I sure as hell don't find what happened to me during that argument this morning very settling. I'm actually feeling pretty goddamn violated by the whole thing." Lip said, shuddering at the thought of losing control of his own body. 

Ian stopped in his tracks and stared at his siblings. He was contemplating whether he should tell them or not. Even though Fiona could be kind of an asshole at times, he usually trusted her. But he mostly trusted Lip. His internal war in his mind was suddenly interrupted. 

"Why the fuck are you staring at us like that?" Fiona asked.

"Oh, sorry." Ian replied and turned around to look out the window, anticipating his friends to arrive any second now. 

Lip gave Fiona a puzzled look and then got up off the couch, sensing Ian was hiding something. 

"Ian, what's going on?" Lip asked.

Ian stood still, facing the window. "Nothing." He lied.

"Look, if you're hiding something from us, now might be the fuckin' time." 

Ian whipped his body around to look at Lip. "Upstairs. Now." He demanded. 

"I don't think so! If you fuckers are trying to involve me in a criminal offense of breaking and entering the lab, which I really don't think we're going to even be able to stand anywhere near it without getting caught by the way, then you're gonna tell me whatever the fuck it is that you're about to tell Lip." Fiona said bluntly while starting to stand up.

Ian sighed. "Guys. I don't know if I should even be telling you. I mean, it's some really _really_ weird shit. It just sorta.. happened."

Lip and Fiona both furrowed their brow and stared at Ian with slight fear of the unknown. 

"Should we be scared?" Fiona whispered to Lip.

"I'm not sure." Lip whispered, watching Ian look back at them.

Ian closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He bowed his head down slowly and opened his eyes. He intensely stared at the remote on the coffee table beside Lip and Fiona. His siblings moved their gaze to follow Ian's on the remote. 

"The fuck is he doing.." Fiona muttered.

Ian continued to stare and focus on the remote, visualizing it lifting up off of the coffee table and holding it in the air. Soon after his visualization, it actually happened. The remote turned over quickly, but slowly began to rise. Fiona covered her mouth with her hand holding in a scream and Lip stared at it, dropping his jaw. They moved their gaze back to Ian whose face was focused and intense. Ian slowly brought his hand up, palm facing out. He held it loosely infront of his body. With his palm facing outward, he slightly brought it forward causing the remote to fly across the room onto the love seat that was on the other side of the living room.

Fiona and Lip watched in awestruck. They were shocked and couldn't speak as something like this only happened in movies or made up stories. This was nothing nearing normalcy. Ian released his mental grip on the remote and looked back at his siblings, now being even better at controlling his abilities and not feeling fatigued. In fact, if anything he felt stronger. He moved his gaze to his siblings that were still staring at the remote that was thrown across the room by what looked like nothing or no one.

Lip finally broke the silence, still staring at the remote. He brought his hand up to cup his own chin. "Did you just.. How did you.. Fiona, you saw that right?"

She nodded with wide eyes, remaining silent.

Lip turned around to face his brother who had a look of skepticism on his face. "Ian, did you just fucking do that?"

Ian slowly nodded.

"How?" Lip asked.

"I don't know. I just, I dunno, I focus on something and visualize it moving. And then it just _happens._ I can do it with mood too, like I did to you earlier. I saw your anger radiating off of you and knew I should try to calm you down."

Lip stared back at Ian, face expressionless. "You _saw_ it?" He shook the thought off and went to his next question, "How long have you been able to do this?"

"Since yesterday at school. Josh was picking on Jerica and it made me angry. Really angry. And as he was walking away I visualized the basket ball hitting him in the head, and well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next." Ian confessed. 

"Does anyone else know?" Fiona asked as she turned around to face Ian, eyes still as wide as saucers.

"No. I mean, I don't think so? I used the mood control on Mickey a few times but I don't think he'd ever think it was me being able to do that."

"Christ, I don't need to hear about you using your jedi mind tricks during your sexual encounters please." Lip teased.

Fiona's jaw dropped nearly to the floor. Ian realized that he and Lip basically outted himself to his sister. 

"Ian, you're gay?"

He nodded trying to keep his thoughts steady and as far away from feeling emotional as possible. 

"The fuck," She started to say and Ian instantly felt like he was going to vomit. She continued, "Why didn't you tell me sooner? Like hello, I could have really used some advice on guys from the past!"

Ian sighed in relief, and Lip smacked Fiona on the arm. "Christ, Fi. He just came out to you and you're gonna try and guilt him for not telling you sooner for _your own_ benefit? So fucking shallow."

She flipped him off and looked back at Ian, face softening. "I wasn't actually serious, Ian. I love you no matter who you love. Never be afraid to tell us anything ever, okay? Now, who's Mickey?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and Ian grinned. 

Lip sighed heavily. "Can we not talk about Ian's love life right now and refocus on our brother being low-key Obi Wan Kenobi over here?"

"I'd like to think of myself as more of a ginger Luke Skywalker." Ian chuckled.

"Fucking nerds." Fiona muttered. 

Headlights entered through the window and Ian looked to his siblings. "Not a fucking word of this to them."

Lip and Fiona nodded. Fiona whispered as she heard the group of people getting out of the car, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Lip nodded. Ian walked over to the door, opening it to let his friends in. They marveled at the beauty of the new Gallagher home, except for Mickey who had already been there when his old flame DJ lived there. He had forgotten all about DJ since meeting Ian. Fiona eyed her brothers' friends, recognizing them around the small school. She admired Jerica's style wishing she could pull it off herself, then moved her gaze to the only guy in the group assuming it was Mickey. She looked at Ian and he watched her move her eyes to Mickey, then again back to his. She wiggled her eyebrows up and down and Ian blushed, looking away.

"Shit, this is a really nice place." Jerica said, looking around. 

"So what's with the whole 'urgent be at my house for 6' mesage?" Mickey questioned. 

Mandy walked over to Lip, clinging on to his arm like a magnet. Fiona rolled her eyes.

"You guys believe that the government watches us? Listens to us without us ever knowing?" Ian asked.

"I've read some pretty fucked up shit about how they hide things from us. But why are you asking?" Jerica questioned, walking back to the group. 

"Our dad says he's a scientist for the government and works at that lab down on Pineview. We've been noticing that we're being watched by some creepy black van chilling outside our house occasionally so we wanna investigate the lab later on tonight. You know, see what we can find out." Lip said, looking at everyone.

"I saw one of those vans earlier, I think." Mickey said, remembering back to when it was parked outside of Jerica's house. 

"That's weird. Even more of a reason to check it out if you don't have anyone in your family tied to a job like our dad is." Lip added.

"I'm down." Jerica shrugged, saying without a second thought.

Everyone else agreed except for Mandy and Fiona.

"Guys, I bet security for the lab doesn't just fuck off for the night. They've gotta have heavy surveillance." Mandy pointed out. 

"I said the same fucking thing but they didn't listen to me." Fiona replied happy to see that someone else was on her side.

"So then you two stay here and let the big boys go out." Mickey snickered. 

Jerica shot him a glare. "A, I'm also going and I'm not a boy. B, maybe they're right. I mean, we can't just stroll down their with our dicks in our hands hoping to just walk right in. We've gotta come up with a plan."

"So what're thinking?" Mickey asked, raising a eyebrow. 

"I think that we should check it out first. Tonight, we'll just scope it out and see what it's like and how heavy the security is. Then we'll regroup and look further another time once we know what we're dealing with." Fiona said.

"That's a great idea, Ian's sister. Do you guys agree?" Jerica asked.

"It's Fiona, by the way." She introduced herself, looking at her soon to be new friends. They all smiled at her.

"Alright, so who agrees with Fiona?" Jerica asked.

Mandy instantly raised a hand and the boys rolled their eyes and huffed before also raising a hand. Fiona smiled triumphantly. 

"Good." Jerica said and looked around the circle that they all inadvertently formed and stood in. She let out a laugh and everyone looked at her in confusion. 

"What's so funny?" Ian asked. 

"We look like the fuckin' Goonies right now about to go out and do dangerous, adventurous shit and what not." Jerica snickered.

"Goonies never say die." Mickey responded with a smirk. 

They all roared in laughter and walked into the kitchen to order a pizza in order to fuel them up for their dangerous adventure tonight.


	10. Misadventures

"Jesus, I'm still cramping from that fucking bike ride. Who even rides bicycles anymore? And easy with the bright fucking flashlight, Mandy! The whole idea here is to not get caught. Not to draw all of Vernonia's attention on to us. Christ." Mickey complained in a whisper as they all walked their bikes to the edge of the woods along a dead-end side street.

They figured taking their own old bicycles would be better to draw less attention than a car would. Mandy and Fiona didn't have a bike, so Mandy stood on the pegs of Lip's BMX bike and Fiona stood on Mickey's pegs. Jerica and Ian had mountain bikes that didn't feature pegs, though, Ian always wanted a cool bike like Lip's when they were growing up. 

They all stopped to lay their bikes down so that they were hidden by the thick trees towards the entry of the woods. Mandy put down her giant lantern flashlight and pulled out a smaller one so they could at least have some light to see where they were walking as it had been pitch black outside. As they all began to walk forward, Ian noticed as Mandy's flashlight hit straight ahead that the woods dipped down into a steep hill.

"Guys, stop!" Ian whispered loudly causing all of them to pause. 

Mandy flashed her light ahead and noticed what Ian saw, too.

"It dips down. Just be careful." Mandy warned. 

They all looked and from the edge of the hill before the dip, you could see the horizon of the town. It was truly a sight to see. The lab was directly below them at the bottom of the hill, surrounded by woods.

Mickey went first to make sure it was safe and to help everyone down. He grabbed on to a tree limb and planted his combat boot into the ground. He moved his body to make sure he wouldn't slip. When he made sure that it was safe, he held on to the tree limb with his FUCK hand and reached out his U-UP one.

"Alright, Jer. I'll take you down first. Just move slowly so you don't trip and roll down the hill." Mickey warned. "And once you make it down there, just make some sort of bird noise or some shit since we can't see dick down there and so we know you didn't die. Everyone good to start going down?"

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. She stepped down cautiously, planting her Chucks into the ground. She crouched down in a squat and started to make her way down by holding on to other tree limbs and shrubbery with her OVER hand while her COME hand gripped the earth, all the while making sure to stay crouched low.

Once everyone saw that Jerica made it seem to be pretty easy, Lip went next. He followed Jerica down in the same crouching position she had gone down in. Next, Mandy went down and successfully made it to the bottom. Then Fiona, also making it down safely. Mickey reached out for Ian's hand indicating it was his turn. 

Ian grabbed his hand and felt an electric volt that ran through his entire body. He looked into Mickey's eyes that were shimmering by the reflection of the full moon and by the way the brunette stared back at him, he knew he could feel the electricity too. Ian stepped down and sat down to start his way down. He let go of Mickey's hand to grab a tree limb and the ground when the brunette interrupted him.

"Wait." Mickey whispered, grabbing onto Ian's black hooded sweatshirt to pull him for a soft kiss.

Mickey released after a few seconds and grinned when he noticed Ian's face turning red against the pale moonlight. Ian smiled and got back on track to go down. He had made it halfway down when he noticed a large sharp rock. He grabbed on to the rock for support and turned his body so he could backwards army crawl the rest of the way to watch Mickey and make sure he was okay. He hadn't hear anything which began to make him nervous. 

"Mickey?" He whispered. 

He heard twigs snapping and a voice letting out a loud 'Fuck'. Mickey was now in sight, sliding down the hill on his ass. He tried to grip the ground which caused him to roll towards the edge of the sharp rock headfirst. Ian panicked. He had to stop him and would have to just pretend Mickey stopped rolling and sliding out of pure luck. _But what if he knows it was me? He'll think I'm some sort of freak.._

He had to decide fast as Mickey was coming down quickly. Ian took a deep breath and reach his hand out forward, palm out, facing the brunette. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard, intensity now on his face. Mickey tried to cover the front of his face to try and stop the blow as best a he could. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the pain. Ian half cupped his hand causing Mickey to abruptly stop, jerking him back. 

Mickey opened his eyes hoping the jerking was all he would feel, maybe missing the rock. His eyes made their way to Ian who was still holding out his hand with his eyes closed. Mickey furrowed his brow as he noticed that he didn't actually miss the rock, but that he had completely stopped rolling and sliding. He looked at the intensity on Ian's face, recognizing a similar look from the party last night, and noticed he felt like someone was holding him in place without anyone actually being there. Mickey gripped the ground with one hand and a nearby thin tree trunk. 

He felt the hold on him decrease slightly, as if it was checking to make sure he was safely holding onto something, and then the feeling diminished completely. As the feeling vanished, Ian gasped and brought his hand down on to the ground, opening his eyes to see Mickey looking back at him with wide eyes. Ian didn't say a word and flipped his body over to make the rest of the way down in a crouch.

As Ian made it down, Lip was waiting for him while everyone else huddled behind a very large tree, whispering about who knows what. Once Lip made sure his brother made it down safely, he walked back over to the girls. Ian waited for Mickey to get down and saw the brunette slowly approaching the bottom of the hill. Mickey stood up and wiped himself off, covered in dirt and leaves. Ian took a step closer and Mickey stopped moving. He moved his head up to look at Ian.

"You're gonna tell me right the fuck now what happened up there. That wasn't just a coincidence that I stopped rolling down that hill." Mickey huffed out.

"I can't tell you right now. What if someone is listening to us? It might not be safe." Ian said, moving his head from side to side to look around. 

Mickey sniffed and brought a hand up to his nose. "I'm not gonna forget about this, Gallagher." 

Mickey finished wiping off most of the dirt and walked over to the tree that everyone was behind. Ian followed closely. Lip looked up and noticed the scratches on Mickey's face along with some left over dirt on him. 

"Jesus, Mick. You hug the earth on the way down?" Lip teased.

"You wanna find out what it's like?" Mickey threatened and Lip threw his hands up in surrender. 

"The lab's down there but I don't see any guards or anything. Weird.." Jerica observed, nodding to her right.

The lab had a chain link fence around it with 'Private Property' and 'Keep Out' signs nearing the fence.

"That is pretty fucking weird." Fiona whispered in agreement.

They all snuck from tree to tree, still not seeing guards or any sign of security. When they made it to the last tree before the entry of the fence, Jerica stopped them.

"We haven't been completely honest with you guys.." Jerica trailed off, looking only at the Gallaghers.

"Who's 'we'?" Ian asked, furrowing his brow.

"Me, Mick and Mandy. We should have told you guys before that-"

"Jerica! Not here." Mandy warned, interrupting her friend. 

"Um yes here. What the fuck is going on?" Fiona pressed taking a step toward Jerica. 

"Look. We knew about your dad working here because, well, small town. Everyone just knows everything here. But.." Jerica swallowed. 

"But what?" Ian asked.

Mickey looked away to avoid eye contact and Ian narrowed his eyes at him.

"This isn't just an average science lab. We've heard.. _things_ about it. Bad things. I mean, it could just be all town talk. But that's why we agreed to go because we've always talked about coming down here to really see what it is but never had the balls to do it. I'm really sorry for-"

"What kind of bad things?" Lip questioned interrupting her apology. 

"Fuckin' weird human testing, MKUltra type shit. Other things as well. People have disappeared from Vernonia and they'd all say 'Oh, Mr. So and So just left town and never came back' or other sketchy bullshit like that. But we've always known it was _them_ because the people who would disappear would be the ones who were awake to this shit. They rode against the tide instead of with it. They were the 'toxic' ones to the tainted minds of the people who just follow everything mindlessly like sheep. Those people over in that lab are not good people. That includes your father." Mickey explained, giving Ian apologetic eyes.

"So why didn't you just tell us back at the house?" Fiona asked.

"We weren't sure if you would believe us or not." Mickey answered bluntly. 

"Do you?" Jerica asked. "Do you believe us?"

The Gallaghers looked at one another and looked back at Jerica. 

"Yes." Lip answered. 

"Good. Let's scope the place out and get the fuck outta here. I'm really starting to get creeped out." Jerica said.

Everyone nodded and made their way to the other side of the entry, observing the lab. They figured they'd circle around it and head back up. They made it to the back of the lab and still saw no sign of security. As everyone started to walk further, Ian stopped. He sensed a presence that wasn't his siblings or his friends. He looked around but saw nothing. The redhead narrowed his eyes and took a step forward, seeing everyone was pretty far ahead of him now.

As he took a step, he heard twigs snapping in the woods to his right. Ian whipped his body to the side and couldn't see anything from the darkness. 

"Hello?" He whispered. 

He squinted and saw glowing eyes looking back at him, reflecting from the moonlight. As Ian began to take a step toward the glowing eyes, Mickey startled him placing a hand on his shoulder. Ian jumped and covered his mouth to hold back a yell. 

"The fuck're you doing, Gallagher?" Mickey asked, looking where Ian's eyes were but seeing nothing but woods and darkness.

"Did you see.." Ian trailed off.

"Let's go." Mickey said and Ian gave one last glance, wondering if he had actually seen anything or not. 

They made it back to the side of the hill where they originally came from and climbed back up to the top safely. They got on their bikes and rode down the street to make it back to the Gallagher house. They put all the bikes in the small shed off to the side of the house, knowing they'd be using them again soon. When they were in the shed, Jerica shut the door.

"I think we should wait until next week to do anything else incase someone did see us. Next Friday night, we try to get a closer look into the lab since security is seemingly light. Mick can bring his video camera so we can film everything we see. Then, maybe people will believe us and won't think we're insane." Jerica said.

"I mean, if what you said is true, wouldn't there be more security to make sure people can't even take a glimpse of the place like we just did?" Lip questioned, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"That's _exactly_ why they don't have security and shit out there. To give off the illusion that they're just your friendly neighborhood lab when really they're a bunch of psychotic animals doing God only knows what." Mickey retorted. 

"What if we get caught?" Mandy asked.

"We won't. We'll be careful like we were tonight and we'll film everything." Mickey said.

"I've got a bad feeling about this.." Ian trailed off.

"It's gonna be fine. So next week, we'll meet here. Same time?" Jerica asked. 

Everyone nodded. Jerica and Mandy walked out of the shed and stopped as the looked at Mickey's black Acura. They decided to wait outside of the shed to wait for Mickey. Fiona looked up to see her brothers and Mickey staring at eachother, tension growing. She furrowed her brow as the staring started to get intense.

"What's up with the tension?" Fiona asked.

"Mickey knows." Ian muttered out.

"I saw." Lip said bluntly. 

"How did you see?" Ian asked in confusion.

"Mickey knows what?" Fiona asked.

"When you were on the hill and I was waiting. That was a dumb ass move, Ian." Lip gritted through his teeth.

"He could have died!" Ian yelled, defending Mickey. 

"Mickey knows what!" Fiona asked louder in annoyance. 

"No he wouldn't have? He would have gotten a bit beat up but you can't just go around saving people at your own expense, Ian!" Lip yelled to his brother. 

"Fucking simmer down, Lip. Stop yelling at him!" Mickey interjected. 

"Mickey knows goddamn what!? For fucks sakes someone answer me!" Fiona screamed over the bickering.

"Mickey knows I'm telekenetic. He was barreling down the hill toward a sharp rock and I panicked. So I stopped him from rolling and held him down until I knew he had a grip onto a branch or something." Ian confessed. 

Fiona threw her hands up. "Well so much for keeping it a secret!"

"What was I supposed to do, watch him get hurt? No fucking way. I care about him, guys!" Ian yelled and everyone went silent. 

He turned around to face Mickey and put a hand on his cheek. "I care about you, Mick."

Mickey stared back at him, feeling conflicted. He wanted to kiss Ian and tell him that he cared about him, too. But he also didn't want Ian's siblings to think he was too soft. He bit back his fears.

"I care about you too, Ian." He whispered. 

"Then if you care, you won't tell anyone. Not Jerica. Not Mandy. Absolutely no one." Lip said bringing his voice back down.

"It's not my secret to tell." The brunette answered. 

Ian brought his hands back down and turned to look at his siblings. 

"Good. I'm going inside, I'll see you guys around." Lip said as he headed to the door, Fiona following close behind. 

Jerica and Mandy rushed behind the shed out of sight, hearing everything that was just said between Mickey and the Gallaghers. They watched as Lip and Fiona made it back inside and made a run for it to the car so that Ian and Mickey didn't know they had been listening. Once they were inside the car, they glanced over at the shed to see Ian and Mickey making out. Jerica looked back at Mandy from the front seat.

"No one in town can ever know about him. But he might be helpful next week when we go back to the lab." Jerica whispered. 

"I think so too. I'm also really happy for Mickey. I don't think I've ever seen my bother this happy before." Mandy answered, smiling warmly. 

"Me too, Mands. He really needed someone like Ian. Really brings out the best in him." Jerica agreed.

She glanced back over to the shed to see that Mickey was now walking to the car. Jerica faced forward in the front seat as Mickey opened the door with a giant smile across his face.

"Ladies and gents, Mickey Milkovich is officially in love!" Jerica said, earning a middle finger to the face from the man himself. 

"Would you fuck off with that shit already? Christ." Mickey muttered as he started the car and backed out of the driveway. 

"So when you seeing him next, Mick?" Mandy asked.

"Tomorrow. Are we done talking about my love life now?"

Jerica's eyes lit up. "Oooh he said the word 'love'!"

Mandy and Jerica giggled.

"Christ." Mickey mumbled and shook his head in amusement.

He was looking forward to seeing a certain redhead tomorrow. For now, he would have to deal with Jerica and Mandy's embarrassing bullshit.


	11. Boom

"Turn that shit up!" Mickey ordered from the back seat of Lip's Camaro between Jerica and Ian, referring to the song on the radio as they sat in the school parking lot waiting to go home for the weekend.

"Billy Idol sucks, Mick." Mandy criticized from the front seat. 

"You shut your goddamn mouth! _White Wedding_ is a fuckin' classic." He retorted. 

Lip chuckled and turned the radio up as he, too, enjoyed Billy Idol. Mandy rolled her eyes and sighed as she put her sunglasses on as it was one of those rare days where the sun made an appearance. Ian laughed as he watched Mickey and Jerica nod their heads to the song. He couldn't believe how close they all had gotten in only a week's span of time from that night they went to the lab. Even Fiona was enjoying spending time with them. 

Today, she had detention and Mickey's car had an exhaust leak. So Lip agreed to pick everyone up before school since they were so going to the Gallagher house after anyway and Fiona took her own car as she usually did.

Last Friday, the day after going to the lab, Mickey and Ian had planned to hang out alone. That didn't end up happening as Mandy wanted to go on a double date which then lead to Jerica and Fiona tagging along some how. Since then, they'd all hung out everyday which would normally cause Ian to have a panic attack. But for once in his life, he loved having friends. He especially enjoyed Mickey's company; occasionally sneaking away from the group at times to go make out like the hormonal teenagers they were.

Ian was the first guy ever that Mickey wanted as more than just a hit-it-and-quit-it type of deal. His last fling with DJ was just meaningless sex to get him off when the mood struck. He never hung out with him past just hooking up and his sister nor Jerica ever got to actually meet him. Mickey told them about him, but he also made it very clear that DJ was just another warm mouth. 

Ian was so much more than that to him, though. He wasn't sure if he should welcome the feeling or fear it. He had never been in a relationship before and suddenly wanted one with someone he's only known for a short period of time which petrfied him. They never talked about jumping in to a relationship but it was a mutual understanding that neither of them wanted anyone else. For now, Mickey would take things day-by-day also understanding that the Gallaghers could up and leave at any point due to Frank's job.

This scared him the most because even if he didn't move into a relationship quickly, he never wanted to lose Ian regardless of their status. Ian brought him to life. The redhead made him want to become a better person and losing Ian would crush him. He tried not to think of it and made the best of the time he got to spend with him instead. 

Lip pulled out of the school parking lot to head home as they all jammed out to Billy Idol. All except for Mandy, of course.

"So, is Frank still acting sketchy?" Mandy asked as she pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

Lip reached for the cigarette after she took a drag. "Yeah. He looks at Ian like a fucking science experiment. We obviously haven't told him anything but who knows who else heard. You and Jerica did. Fucking nosey assholes." Lip teased as he exhaled the smoke.

"In our defense, we were waiting for Mickey to start the car but you guys took nine years arguing like loud motherfuckers in the shed, so who wouldn't listen?" Jerica said defensively over the music. 

"I think he might know, to be honest. Why else would he be acting weird and shit?" Ian asked, shuddering at the images of Frank staring at him like a possible future lab rat.

"Like Fi and I have said, just don't use your jedi shit around anyone other than the five of us." Lip lectured, taking another drag and handing the cigarette back over to Mandy. 

"For fucks sake, it's not jedi shit. It's called telekinesis." Ian sighed in aggravation, already tired of the Star Wars jokes and references.

"But Obi Wan.." Mickey started.

"Don't." Ian ordered.

"You're our _only_ hope!" Mickey teased and let out laughter.

Ian rolled his eyes and sighed. "Feel better now? That's, what, the seventh time in 24 hours that you've said that to me?"

"Never gets old." Jerica teased, laughing at the reference and at Ian's unamused facial expression.

"Seriously though. When we go back tonight, you really might be able to protect us if shit goes south." Lip said as he looked at his brother through the rearview mirror. 

"Who said I even want to use it again? It's kind of a dangerous ability to have, don't you think?" Ian questioned. 

"Its dangerous if you're using it for bad things, Ian. I've already told you, your newfound gift is really fucking cool. Don't shame yourself because of it." Lip said.

"I just don't want anyone to get hurt." Ian muttered and looked out the window, indicating he was done with the conversation. 

Lip pulled into the grocery store to pick up some snacks since Monica hadn't gotten the chance to go grocery shopping yet. Mandy followed him out as Mickey, Ian and Jerica stayed in the car.

"Do you guys think we're gonna find anything down there tonight?" Jerica asked. 

"I'm really not sure. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous." Mickey answered. 

Ian began to tune them out as a bright reflection caught his eye outside the window. He tried to follow where it was coming from. Off in the distance, he spotted a familiar black unmarked van parked in the far end of the parking lot. Ian furrowed his brow and tried to focus and see if he could sense danger.

"Ian?" Jerica asked, breaking his focus.

"Hmm?" Ian answered, turning his head to look at her.

"I asked - woah. Do you need a tissue or something?" She interrupted herself looking at Ian's bloody nose. 

She pulled a tissue out of her backpack and handed it over to the redhead who felt the blood dripping down onto his lip. Suddenly, he felt his ears starting to ring and everything and everyone was now tuned out. He couldn't hear anything over the ringing which continued to get louder in his head. He covered his ears and brought his head down, feeling extremely nauseous. 

Mickey unbuckled their seat belts and hovered over Ian to grab him. Ian looked up to see Mickey looking like he was yelling but couldn't hear anything over the loud ringing in his ears. Mickey turned his head to Jerica and yelled something causing her to unbuckle and sprint out of the car to run inside the store and get Lip. Ian started harshly convulsing and he hugged himself in pain. He felt like he was being electrocuted by something but didn't know where it was coming from.

Mickey's face filled with sheer terror as he didn't know what was happening and assumed Ian was having some sort of seizure. Ian mustered up every ounce of energy that he had and let out a long blood curdling scream. He slouched over as he continued to scream, the sound causing Mickey to cover his ears in pain and moved over to sit down beside him. 

The Camaro began to lightly shake and Mickey looked up noticing the windshield started to crack and quickly spider webbed. Suddenly, Mickey felt a powerful force pushing him down into the seat. He slouched over to cradle his head as all of the windows instantly bursted from the pressure and shattered along with every single cars' windows in the parking lot in a loud _boom._

Ian's screaming immeditaly stooped as the feeling of being electrocuted diminished along with the ringing in his ears. He slowly looked up, hearing the noise of car alarms sounding off throughout the parking lot. He heard tires screeching and he whipped his head back to see the van gunning it out of the parking lot. Ian nearly jumped to the front seat to get out of the car and Mickey ran after him. 

"What the fuck is happening, Gallagher!" Mickey roared as he carefully stepped over the glass to open the door and stand next to Ian also seeing the van pulling out of the lot before disappearing. 

Ian stood in place, pushing a hand out forward and intense focus flooded over his face. Mickey's eyes widened at the familiar expression on the redhead's face as he saw people running out of the store to see what was happening. He grabbed Ian's arm and tired to pull it down.

"Ian, no!" He yelled.

Ian ignored him and cupped his hand tightly, curling his lip and grinding his teeth in anger as he did so. His face was rigid and filled with fury, unlike his usual soft and inviting look he had. Ian closed his eyes and sharply tilted his head to the left. Mickey heard a loud crash some distance away and covered his mouth with his hand. He spun around to see people now running to their cars, thankfully not paying any attention to Ian. The redhead instantly released his grip and dropped to his knees and began to cough uncontrollably. Mickey looked up to see Lip, Jerica and Mandy all looking at him with eyes as wide as saucers.

Lip dropped the grocery bags in shock, staring at the lot filled with shattered glass and cars lighting up from the alarms. Jerica and Mandy ran over to Mickey and Ian.

"What the fuck just happened? We were inside and the whole store fucking shook! We thought it was one of those powerful earthquakes!" Mandy said loudly over the the alarms and the chaos of panicking people yelling around them.

Mickey couldn't speak. He couldn't believe what he just saw; what Ian just _did._

Lip picked up the bags off the ground and ran over to Ian, starting to hear police sirens in the distance coming their way. 

"Did you do this, Ian?" Lip asked loudly, knowing people were too panicked to hear them.

Ian remained silent, staring at the ground as he was on all fours. 

"Ian! Did you fucking do this?" Lip repeated. 

"I... I think we might be in danger." Mickey mumbled, still in shock. 

Everyone moved their eyes to Mickey as he stood facing the mayhem. The sound of the sirens got closer and Mickey turned around to look at them. 

"There was a black van parked across the lot and I think.. I think they were hurting Ian. And then, he well, retaliated." Mickey said. "I've seen a van like that before.." He continued and trailed off.

They moved their gaze back down to Ian who slowly began to get up. Ian wiped off some glass that had gotten on to him. He too a deep breath before speaking. 

"They know about me. I could _sense_ it. I think they knew I saw them because I felt like I was being fucking electrocuted. It was like they _wanted_ me to show them what I'm capable of. I don't remember what happened, though. It's like everything just went black."

"Well if I had to take a fucking stab, it's pretty safe to assume that you showed them what they wanted to see." Lip bit out.

"I heard a crash down the road. I'm not sure if Ian got them or not." Mickey said in fear. 

Their eyes all widened and they ran past the chaos to the end of the parking lot to see a red car flipped upside down and smoking. Thankfully, it was abandoned so they could only assume everyone made it out okay.

"Holy fuck.." Jerica whispered.

Ian instantly felt sick. He felt like a monster, responsible for the chaos in the parking lot and for almost killing those people in the car on accident while trying to flip the van instead. He walked over to the grass to vomit. Mickey paced over to him and rubbed his back.

"It's gonna be okay, Ian." Mickey tried to comfort him.

Ian wiped his arm across his mouth and stood up to look at Mickey. 

"This is _exactly_ what I meant when I said that I could be dangerous! What if I killed those people in the car? What if.. What if I killed you, Mickey? I could never live with myself if-"

"But you didn't. And you won't. I trust you, Ian. You won't hurt me." Mickey interrupted him. 

The redhead let out a dry, humorless laugh. "How can you even say that? I'm a fucking monster."

Mickey watched as tears started to swell in Ian's eyes. He took a deep breath, not caring if the random people in the parking lot saw them. He took a step closer and brought his hand up to Ian's cheek.

"You're not a monster, Ian. This is just something unexplainable that happened. That's always what it's going to be. But I don't care. I don't care that you're telekenetic or if you have any other sort of crazy, Avengers-type-shit powers or whatever. You make me so fucking happy. All of you. Please stop being so hard on yourself. You retaliated out of human instinct and self defense. Any one of us would have done the same thing."

Ian looked down ignoring the brunette, feeling defeated. He never wanted to use his abilities ever again. He hated that he ever found out about them and wished he could make them go away. He looked up as he heard the sirens approaching the parking lot.

"Guys! Let's get back to the car before the cops start questioning us." Lip yelled as they started to head back to the car.

"We saw _nothing._ We don't have a damn clue about what happened." Mickey said and everyone nodded in agreement. 

They got back to the car and saw the flood of people and workers from the store all outside bombarding the police with questions. One of the policemen started to walk towards them and Ian swallowed hard, suddenly getting a terrible feeling forming in the pit of his stomach. 

"You kids okay?" The officer asked.

"Yeah. A little shaken up but we'll be okay." Lip answered. 

"You see what happened out here?" The officer asked.

"No, sir. We thought it was an earthquake." Lip answered looking convincing. 

"Unfortunately, it wasn't. We weren't sure if it was a terrorist attack or not. There's really nothing here in this town that terrorists should want. I mean, other than that lab across town. But even then, I'm not sure if that would be of any interest." He revealed, looking new to Mickey, Jerica and Mandy as they didn't recognize him.

Lip nodded. The officer's radio went off and he started to head back to the crowd to question more people  
He stopped and turned around before leaving. 

"If you kids hear anything, make sure you call the station to report it!"

They all nodded. Ian took a step forward and turned around to face everyone. "Never again. I'm never doing this shit ever again. Even tonight."

The others stared up at him seeing the fear and anxiety on his face. Ian couldn't bare the thought of putting his friends and family in danger any more than he already has. He sighed and walked past them to start brushing the glass off of Lip's seats with the sleeve of his flannel. Everyone else followed to do the same, starting to realize that they all might be in more danger than they bargained for.


	12. The New Plan

Ian was having major doubts about going back to the lab tonight. Ever since the mishap in the supermarket parking lot earlier, he decided he didn't want to go. After the small questioning by the police, Lip told him to think on it. This was of course during the ride home in Lip's windowless car. He made an appointment with a glass company and was lucky enough to have everything replaced tomorrow afternoon, but it sucked having the glass destroyed in the first place. He had to cover the car in a tarp for the night and was thankful it was only September and wasn't raining this day.

It had been 7 o'clock and Ian hadn't changed his mind. He was set on not going, afraid to accidentally use his telekenetic abilities which he vowed to himself he would never use again. If he made it almost 17 years without it, he figured that he could carry on just the same without it.

They all sat in the living room watching TV and eating snacks. Fiona put on some reality show that they were all sucked in to, except for Ian. All he could think about was how he ruined everyone's car in the lot and how he nearly killed those people in the car. _What if I hurt Lip or my friends? What if I hurt Mickey.._ He got up off of the loveseat that he was sharing with Mickey without saying a word and headed to the staircase to go up to his room.

Jerica shot a concerned look to Mickey and he sighed, rubbing the palm of his hand over his forehead. Lip stood up and Mickey put his hand up in a stopping motion. 

"No, I got it." Mickey said as he got up off the loveseat to follow after the redhead. 

He made it up the stairs and knocked on Ian's closed door, hearing music playing out of his stereo. 

"Go away." Ian said muffled behind the door and music.

Mickey rolled his eyes and opened the door anyway to see Ian laying on his back in the middle of the floor. Mickey furrowed his brow and closed the door behind him before sitting down next to Ian. 

"Go away." Ian lightly mumbled. 

Mickey softly chuckled and smiled. "What'd you say, mumbles? I know you didn't just tell me to go away."

Mickey narrowed his eyes, recognizing the music playing. "Jesus Christ, Ian. Is this The Fray? So fucking gay." Mickey teased. 

Ian moved his head to look the brunette in the eyes, ignoring his criticism in his choice of music. 

"Do you think I'm a bad person?" Ian asked, face completely serious. 

"Of course not."

"Am I, like, fucking weird or something?" Ian asked. 

"Other than being a ginger, nope. Not weird." Mickey teased. 

"So what did I do to deserve getting this fucking curse?"

"Don't be so dramatic, Ian. It's not a curse. Fuck, I wish I could do that kind of shit. It's really cool even if you don't think it is."

"But that's the thing, Mick. It's not even remotely cool. I feel like a weapon. Like I could just destroy shit that's in my path if I'm mad enough."

Mickey chuckled darkly. "And what's wrong with that?"

"Mickey, I'm serious." Ian said, sitting up now. "You think this is so cool but we've got some serious shit on our hands. Specifically, that weird fucking van that's stalking us. I really felt like they did something to me earlier which triggered my reaction."

"So then we go and expose those fucks at the lab tonight. I guarantee they're tied to that creepy van, too. But in order for us to do that, we need you to come. We can't be the Sinister Six without our sixth member, right?" Mickey teased, trying to distract Ian from his doubtful feelings. 

Ian rolled his eyes. "Stop trying to make that a thing. Christ."

"We've gotta have a badass name for our group, so I found that one to be pretty suitable." Mickey defended. 

"I really can't tell if you're serious or not." Ian said looking unamused.

"What do you think?" Mickey asked, his facial expression changing to become more serious.

"I already told you. I'm not sharing the same name as the fucking supervillains in the Spider-Man comic books."

"No. I'm, uh, not talking about that." Mickey said nervously, bringing a hand up to his nose. 

Ian raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about, then?"

Mickey had contemplated bringing this up all day. He had gone back and forth in his head if he should or shouldn't talk to Ian about what they are to eachother. He never would have thought he would want a boyfriend, but Ian made him crazy in the best way possible. He wanted to be able to call Ian his and didn't care who knew about it. He took a deep breath before speaking, deciding to stick with his gut on this. 

"Us."

"We're an 'us' now?" Ian asked, biting back a grin.

"I don't know. Maybe? Do you want to be?" Mickey asked looking off to the side, too embarassed to look Ian in the eye.

"Only if you ask me properly." Ian challenged. 

Mickey let out a laugh. "Are you serious right now?"

"Mmhmm." 

"Christ. Always so dramatic."

"I'm waiting." Ian said, raising an eyebrow. 

Mickey huffed. "Will you go out with me?"

"Hmmm... No."

Mickey snapped his neck up to look at Ian's smirking face. "The fuck do you mean, 'no'?"

"We already 'go out'. I need something more." Ian challenged. 

Mickey rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. "You are seriously something else, Gallagher. You know that?"

"That doesn't sound like the question I'm waiting for."

"Jesus fuck. Ian, will you be my boyfriend?" Mickey asked looking annoyed. 

Ian's grin was victorious. "I thought you'd never ask!"

Mickey flipped him off before chuckling. He laid down beside the redhead, Ian following suit. They stared up at the ceiling, Mickey thinking about how different his life was turning out to be than he expected. His thoughts were interrupted when Ian turned on his side to face him. Mickey smiled softly looking at his boyfriend, suddenly feeling unexpected arousal. He furrowed his brow and then rolled his eyes when he noticed Ian's shit-eating grin.

"Thought you weren't gonna use your jedi mind tricks anymore." Mickey teased, brining his arm around Ian's waist to pull the latter on top of him. 

"I said I'm not using the telekinesis. I never mentioned the mood control." Ian said as he snickered and brought his lips on to Mickey's. 

Mickey wrapped both of his arms around the small of Ian's back to pull him in closer. The kiss deepened as Ian opened his mouth, inviting Mickey's tongue inside. Mickey moved a hand up to the middle of the Ian's back while his other hand slid down to grab his ass. Ian suddenly broke away from the kiss and sat up, staring down at Mickey as he straddled him.

"I just thought you should know that I'm a virgin." Ian confessed. 

Mickey stared up at him blankly, not really knowing how to respond. Ian waited silently for thirty seconds before speaking again.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"You're um, a virgin as in..."

"As in nothing past a handjob."

Mickey nodded slowly. 

"Okay. So, uh, hypothetically speaking.. If we were to, ya know-"

"I'm not sure. What do you suggest when _you,_ uh, do it?" Ian nervously interrupted, feeling utterly awkward. 

Mickey brought his hands up to his face and let out a laugh. He put his hands back on Ian's hips as the redhead glared down at him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just, 'What do you suggest when you do it' was kind of funny. I'm not laughing at you being a virgin, I swear. But that kind of was a virgin thing to say." Mickey teased.

Ian huffed and moved off of the brunette who was now cracking up.

"Ian, wait, I'm sorry! Come back." Mickey pleaded as he tried to grab Ian.

The redhead swatted at his hand and sat up with his legs crossed. Mickey sighed and sat up as well.

"Ian, there's nothing wrong with being a virgin."

"You're not a virgin." He mumbled.

Mickey sighed and brought his hand to his nose. "No, but I also never thought of sex as something meaningful until I met someone who made me think it could actually _be_ meaningful."

Ian rolled his eyes and brought his knees up to his chest. Mickey put a hand on the redhead's arm, Ian trying to pull away but Mickey continued to hold his hand there.

"Don't try to treat me like a kid about this. I've never done a lot of things and sex is just one of those many things. So can we just do it and get it over with?" Ian asked, looking the other way to avoid eye contact. 

Mickey spit out a humorless laugh. "Jesus, no. I might be a hormonal teenager but I'm not just gonna fuck you to 'get it over with'. Christ, Ian."

"You just made it clear that you don't have a problem fucking others guys." Ian muttered.

Mickey exhaled heavily in annoyance. "If you would have listened to the importance of what I was saying, I was getting at wanting it to be special with you and not just having it be meaningless like it has literally been every single time. I've only been with 2 guys, and each time it meant nothing to me. They also weren't my boyfriend or anything close to it. So now that I know you've never done it, I want it to be special for you."

"You realize you sound like an old man trying to protect my virtue or some shit, right?" 

Mickey chuckled and leaned in to kiss Ian on his forehead. "Someone's gotta do it with your whole 'fuck me to get it over with' attitude. Might attract some nasty fuckin' creepers or whatever."

Ian rolled his eyes, deciding to drop it. For now. "Speaking of creepers, do you really that van is connected to the lab?" 

"Yeah, I'm really starting to think so. You even said yourself that it felt like they did something to you back there. So they probably know and want to test on you like some fucking lab rat."

"I looked in to that MKUltra shit you mentioned last week and it's honestly terrifying if it is actually true. What if they try to do that shit on me?" Ian asked with wide eyes.

Mickey wrapped his arm around Ian. "We're not gonna let them take you, Ian.." Mickey trailed off, contemplating if he wanted to ask the question that popped up in his mind. 

Ian noticed the dilemma on Mickey's face and furrowed his brow. "I can feel your confliction. Mood abilities, remember?"

Mickey rolled his eyes at Ian's smirking expression before speaking. "Can you, like, see into people's minds? I guess I'm really trying to ask if you can see who was in the van and who's in the lab."

"I've honestly never tried."

And here was Mickey's dilemma. He wanted to ask Ian to try it out and see if he could do it but he also didn't want to upset him after he just said he was never using his gifts again. Ian sensed more confliction and knew Mickey wanted to ask. Ian took a deep breath.

"I'm only gonna do this once. If I'm able to see anything, we only go down to the lab tonight to bust them and then no more after that. I can't promise I'm going to be able to do it. I want to go downstairs and do it with everyone else around incase I end up bursting windows and shit again and there's more people to help snap me out of it."

Mickey nodded.

Ian stared at him for a moment before speaking. "Alright. Let's go try to find out who these fuckers are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **MKUltra:**  
>  Project MKUltra, also called the CIA mind control program, is the code name given to a program of experiments on human subjects, at times illegal, designed and undertaken by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Experiments on humans were intended to identify and develop drugs and procedures to be used in interrogations and torture in order to weaken the individual to force confessions through mind control. The operation began in the early 1950s, and the project engaged in many illegal activities. This included the use of unwitting U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects, which led to controversy regarding its legitimacy. MKUltra used numerous methodologies to manipulate people's mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation and verbal abuse, as well as other forms of psychological torture.  
> You can read more on: _https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra_  
>  Or:  
>  _http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-mk-ultra_
> 
> I hope you're enjoying this story as it is definitely an interesting one to write! As always, thank you for leaving comments and kudos! I hope you continue to enjoy!❤


	13. Project HALO

"Are you sure about this?" Lip asked feeling concerned.

"It wouldn't hurt to try, right?" Fiona answered.

"I guess so.." Lip answered.

They all sat in a circle formed around Ian who was sitting in the center feeling uneasy. Mickey rubbed his shoulder in assurance that he was right there for the redhead. Ian nodded and closed his eyes. 

He focused heavily on the van. The appearance of it, mainly. He couldn't see inside yet, so he focused harder. Suddenly he saw an image of a woman in her mid 40s. She was pale and had her light blonde hair tied in a bun. Ian tried to rack his brain to see if he recognized her, though, concluded he didn't. Then, he saw another person sitting next to her. It was a man who looked to be in his early 50s. He was portly and stuffing his face with donuts. They were both wearing lab coats. 

Ian's head twitched causing everyone in the room to stare closely at him. The lights began to flicker and Jerica looked up. The ceiling fan started to lightly shake above them. They moved their gaze back to Ian. 

Ian saw equipment that looked like tracking devices of some sort. There were TVs built in to the wall of the small enclosed space that the man and woman were in. The man eating the donuts looked like he fell to the side off of his chair. Ian furrowed his brow, searching for more clues. He couldn't hear what was being said, but he noticed the man and woman began talking and bouncing from side to side in the enclosed space. Then it hit him. They were the ones in the van.

He moved his focus onto the TV screens to see if anything looked familiar. What he saw frightened him at first, then sent rage to his core.

"Is he okay?" Jerica whispered, noticing Ian suddenly went completely still. 

Ian was looking at footage of all of them from last week outside of the lab on one TV screen. The next screen was footage playing of them at Jerica's party, catching Ian moving the ping pong ball. Another screen was rolling a replay of the scene in the parking lot earlier. The wall beside the screens had all of their pictures up with data beside each photograph. Ian saw his photo with notes written that he couldn't really make out what they said. He was only able to read _Project: HALO. #090 - Fail. Reevaluation required._

The room began to rumble and shake causing everyone to stand up. Mickey grabbed Ian's shoulders to try and snap him out of it. Everyone began to talk loudly but Ian was too concentratated on the people in the van to hear any of them in the room with him. 

Instead, Ian could now hear what they were saying in the van as if he was there. It sounded a bit muffled, but it was audible. 

_"If we're going by the reports, then they'll be back tonight. Did Frank inform you if the subject has admitted to his delayed side effects yet?" The woman asked._

_"He hasn't said a word about it. We can't let the subject come in contact with anyone else. Are we able to get a visual right now?" The man asked, stuffing down another donut._

_"Searching." She replied, turning to her computer that read 'HALO' in the background and began typing rapidly. The radar equipment beside her began to beep. "At his house."_

Ian opened his eyes and stood up, the room still shaking. He blocked everyone out as he walked toward the window and pulled back the curtain. The lights began to rapidly flicker and the others ran over to Ian, feeling scared of what was happening. Ian held his angry gaze straight ahead and began to refocus back inside of the van.

_"Gary.. Don't move. The subject can see us right now. He's looking right at me." The woman whispered, referring to Ian's face on one of the screens._

_"Alex, you know what you need to do." Gary responded._

_Alex pulled something out from her bag that looked like a remote. She stared back at the screen and held it up to shake it tauntingly._

_"Try me, fucker." She whispered._

Ian smiled sinisterly, and pushed his hand out infront of him. He lightly chuckled and closed his eyes.

"Oh shit. Guys, he found them!" Mickey screamed.

There was a large rumble that made everyone almost fall over. Immediately, there was a sound off in the distance that followed. It sounded like an implosion before a major explosion. 

"Boom." Ian whispered. 

"Boom?" Jerica questioned, eyes widened as she looked over to her friends surrounding Ian while holding on to the couch and walls for support. 

Suddenly the power cut off. The sound of the power going out and crashes waved across the distance. Everything stopped, including Lip's wrist watch and cellphone. Everyone screamed out of instinct and Ian's smile vanished, being replaced with pure intensity. 

_"The subject is testing us. Look at him, smiling at us... Wait. He just said something that looked like 'boom'?" Alex said in confusion._

_The van instantly stopped running, engine cutting and the screens all turning black with no power. The driver yelled to hold on causing Gary and Alex to run to the front and see what was happening._

_As they made it to the top of a hill and van rolling to a stop, they caught a glimpse of the entire town. Alex brought a hand over her mouth as they watched the power going out quickly across the town, one place at a time resembling a domino effect._

_"Jesus, Mary and Joseph. He just created a goddamn EMP with his mind." Gary whispered._

_"There's no way he's strong enough to cause a high-energy electromagnetic pulse like that.." Alex trailed off._

_Gary turned his head to face Alex as the van sat on the top of the hill._

_"What did you guys do to him in that lab.."_

Ian snapped out of his real-time vision and fell to his knees, falling unconscious.

Mickey nearly jumped to him and lifted Ian's body up with one arm, cradling his head with his other hand.

Lip stared at him in shock, having enough technological knowledge to understand that Ian had created a very intense EMP large enough to knock out the power, including battery power, of the entire town. Just like a weapon of warfare. 

Ian abruptly opened his eyes and gasped for air.

"Ian, can you hear Me? What the fuck is going on?" Mickey asked frantically, everyone else circling around him except for Lip who stood behind, standing still in shock. 

"They..are..watching." Ian said between gasps and coughs.

"He just created a fuckin' EMP." Lip whispered, interrupting Ian. 

Everyone snapped their necks behind them to look at Lip. 

"He fucking what?" Mickey asked, glancing at Lip but moving his focus back on to Ian who started to take deep breaths and stopped coughing and gasping. 

"He created an EMP." Lip repeated, bringing his gaze over to his brother. 

"The fuck is an EMP?" Mandy asked. 

"Electromagnetic pulse. It's basically a super intense burst of electromagnetic energy caused by vigorous and sudden acceleration of charged particles." Lip said, receiving blank looks from everyone. 

Jerica raised an eyebrow waiting for him to speak more to further elaborate. He looked back at her indicating he was finished. 

"Christ. This time in fucking English, nerd." She said in aggravation. 

"When he whispered 'boom', he somehow was able to kill the power, damaging circuits and everything electrical in the radius that he sent it out to. It killed the power of our lights, our phones, even my watch. EMPs can be used as a weapon in warfare, too. But this.. this was major. He managed to hit the whole town it looks like. It's supposed to just be a _pulse,_ so I'm not sure if and when the power will come back." Lip said as he waved towards the blackness outside the window.

Everyone moved their gaze back to Ian who stared blankly off in to the distance.

"I found them. They watch us and have pictures of us hanging up. They're trying to track me and have experiment notes next to my picture saying that I was failed and need to be reevaluated." Ian said.

"We need to get the fuck out of here and hide then." Mickey suggested.

"Can't. They somehow were able to track us with some sort of weird government equipment. I tried to just make their van explode, but seeing the pictures and video feeds of us angered me and then.. I didn't know what was happening to me. It's like the rage took over my body." Ian said, voice starting to crack as tears formed in his eyes.

"Ian, it's gonna be ok-"

"No it's fucking not, Mickey! I put you all on their radar because you associate with me. I don't even know when they could have experimented on me otherwise this new crazy shit that I can do all of a sudden out of no where wouldn't be such a shock to me." Ian interrupted, standing up.

"I remember." Fiona muttered. 

"What?" Ian spun around to face her. 

"You guys really don't remember? Fuck, and you wonder why I hate Mom and Dad so much." Fiona laughed humorlessly.

"Fi, what are you talking about?" Lip questioned.

Jerica, Mandy and Mickey sat down and watched as the Gallaghers went back and forth. 

"Dad bringing us to that weird building back when we were 10 and Ian was 9 doesn't ring a bell?" Fiona asked.

She knew the answer to her question when her brothers stared blankly at her. She shook her head. 

"Dad would bring us to this really weird building where people wearing masks and lab coats would give us this drink, or something, and ask as really weird questions. I don't remember everything entirely but I remember Dad being there and jotting down notes. They were never focused on me and you, Lip. They were focused on Ian. They always separated him from us and I don't know what happened after that.." Fiona trailed off.

"When we'd ask Mom, she'd tell us that the guys from his work just wanted to see if we were _special._ That's why I hate Frank and Monica. They tested us like little fucking guinea pigs and lied to us afterwards, clearly successfully brain washing you both. Not me." 

"That's fucked up.." Jerica whispered, Mickey lightly punching her arm to shut her up.

"Neither of you remember this?" Fiona asked, eyes starting to fill with tears. 

"No." They both answered. 

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the power turning back on.

"See, supposed to only be a pulse. Just a really long fuckin' pulse." Lip said.

He looked back to Fiona. Before he could say anything, Ian spoke. 

"Does the name HALO ring a bell to anyone?" Ian asked.

"Like the game?" Mickey responded. 

"Fuck - no. Not the game. I saw something that said _Project: HALO_ next to my picture and on their computer screens in the van." Ian stated.

"Must be the name of the company." Lip said.

Their phones turned back on and Ian's vibrated a few times. He pulled it out of his pocket to see he had 3 missed calls from Monica and 1 voicemail. He played the message on speaker:

_Ian, It's Mom! I'm not sure what just happened but I'm at the diner at work and we're watching everyone lose power out of no where almost like a wave. I hope you and your brother and sister are okay! Please call-_

The message ended due to the EMP reaching her at that time. 

"We've gotta get to that fucking lab and expose these bastards." Lip interrupted.

"And do what, Lip? No one's gonna believe us. They'll think we're just crazy. Plus, who would we even tell? I'm sure the police are in on it, too." Ian said.

Fiona sighed and nodded. "Ian's right. It's really not going to do us any good. And now that we know they're onto us, it's probably a really bad idea."

"We can't just let them get away with this shit! Even if we don't go back to the lab, we can't just drop this. They tried to hurt Ian and I'm sure that if we get in the way, they'll hurt us too. People won't listen to a bunch of teenagers. But if we bring to their attention what those fuckers are really doing, I think we've got an honest shot. I saw we still go and livestream everything we see with our phones. We never stop filming and we show the world that the government we trust in is made up of a bunch of shady, money hungry pieces of shit. Are we all fucking in?" Mickey asked, raising his eyebrows and staring intently at everyone. 

Everyone looked at one another for a moment and then nodded. 

"Good. Let's fucking go."


	14. Run

The six of them rode their bikes under the flickering street lights, police cars and ambulances speeding by due to the unexpected EMP that just occurred. Lip watched as the cars and trucks barreled past them and drove off out of sight. Once the flashing lights were completely gone, they crossed the street to ride along the edge of the woods, dropping their bikes down once recognizing the familiar spot they were at from last week.

Fiona stepped down from Mickey's pegs on the bike and walked over to Ian.

"I don't want you to feel like you have to do this." She said.

"We need to do this, Fi. I'm just worried that no one will believe us.." Ian trailed off.

They moved their bikes behind the same tree as last week and made it to the edge of the hill before the dip. This time, Ian decided to help everyone down by making sure no one slipped or slid. Once everyone made it down, Ian walked in front of everyone to make it toward the main entrance. They immediately stopped when they realized they could now hear alarms sounding inside. Everyone ducked behind a nearby tree, watching the windows as the lights strobed from the alarms.

"Ian, can you try to see what's going on in there?" Lip whispered. 

Ian nodded and sat down on the ground. Everyone remained crouched behind the tree to keep a lookout on the lab. Ian closed his eyes and began focusing on the building. Everyone watched as Ian tried to see inside and Mickey sat down next to the redhead, holding his hand for support.

_Ian started searching through the first level floor, east wing. It was completley deserted, only the bright flickering lights of the alarm were visible. The sound was excruciating. Next, the west wing. Also deserted. He searched the stairwells up to the next floor, noticing red smears on the walls._

Ian opened his eyes abruptly and gasped. 

"What did you see?" Mickey asked, holding Ian's hand.

"Red smears..."

"Blood?" Lip interrupted. 

Ian nodded. 

"Fuck.." Lip whispered. 

Ian took a deep breath and closed his eyes again, gripping Mickey's hand tight with anticipation of what he would see next.

_He searched past the door, the door handle covered in blood. He then saw into the hallway of the second floor. There was blood everywhere that covered the floors and the walls. The computers in the main hall were all still on, though, alert codes and messages popping up on the screens. It read, 'System malfunction. Please lock down.'_

_Ian heard screams coming from somewhere in the east wing. He searched over to the wing and tried to determine which room it came from. There were many doors, so he took an educated guess and checked the first door on the left. No one could see him as he was in his own real-time vision, but he saw them. The scientists were under tables, ducking and huddled together. He didn't see anyone he recognized, but he listened as they frantically whispered, voices drowned out by the piercing sound of the alarms._

_"This is why we should have had a back-up plan." A woman whispered._

_"How were we to know that the subject was capable of knocking out the power by creating an intense EMP like that?" Another woman whispered back._

_"Well everything fucking unlocked when the power went out. How the hell do we even get out of here? Everyone's fucking dead." A man gritted through his teeth._

_"Dead? What do you mean everyone's dead?" The first woman asked, sounding frightened._

_The man turned his body to face her. "When the goddamn subject wiped out the power, it shut everything down. Including the locks in the testing rooms with the genetically modified experiments down in the basement.."_

_The woman's eyes widened. "You mean-"_

_"As in, he let_ them _out."_

_Ian heard enough to understand that the lab was not safe. But he was still worried about his father, even if he did actually test on Ian and his siblings when they were younger._

Ian opened his eyes, hands nearly purple from squeezing his boyfriend's hand.

"I've gotta go in there. I fucked up. You guys need to stay here and keep an eye out." Ian said as he got in his feet.

"Like hell I'm letting you go in there alone!" Mickey raised his voice, also standing up. 

Ian turned around to face Mickey. "You can't go in there, Mick. When I knocked the power out across town, I also killed the power in the lab. You guys were right. They have been doing shady testing and created some genetically modified experiments. Well, I let them out on accident and they're killing everyone. I need to make sure Dad's-"

"You let _them_ out? What do you mean by _them?"_ Jerica interrupted. 

Ian's eyes widened as he stared at her blankly for a moment. Ian turned to Lip.

"There has to be more than one of whatever is in there. There's blood everywhere but I didn't see it.. or them.. or whatever it was. I didn't see any bodies either. Just blood." Ian answered. 

Suddenly, there were sounds of gunshots coming from the lab and everyone looked in its direction. 

"We're coming with you." Jerica said, stepping toward Ian.

Lip and Mickey did the same, now standing beside Ian. Mandy and Fiona stood still, too afraid to go inside. 

"Mands, I want you and Fiona to stay out here and keep an eye out for anyone or any _thing_ leaving the lab that isn't us. Jerica, Lip and I are going with Ian to get his dad out of there then we're all getting the fuck out of here. Please be careful and call us if something happens." Mickey ordered. 

"I'm not positive, but I think the doors may be locked now when the power came back. The only way anything can get out is if everything unlocks again. Fiona, please be safe and just call us if anything happens." Ian reiterated. 

Fiona nodded and stepped forward to hug her brothers. Once releasing from the embrace, and after Mandy latched on to Lip kissing him for 2 minutes straight causing Jerica to dramatically gag, they made their way to the lab. Mickey found a thick stick on the ground and picked it up for protection. As they walked closer to the main entrance, Ian's heart stopped. The main door was open, clearly unlocked. Ian sprinted over to the door, everyone else following behind closely. 

Jerica turned around to make sure nothing was behind them, and followed the guys inside of the lab. The lights strobed across their faces as they looked around in the lights that were dimmed from just the power of the back up generators. Ian raised his hand up to close the door behind them.

"Show off." Lip muttered causing Ian to smirk. 

They stayed close together, slowly making their way to the west wing. The sound of the alarms going off was nearly ear piercing and the lights strobing fucked with their eyes, but they continued on searching for Frank. Ian closed his eyes, trying to sense where his dad was but found nothing. 

"Where was the blood?" Lip asked, searching along the floors and walls that appeared to be spotless and shiny.

"In there." Ian nodded to the door of the stairwell. 

Lip and Mickey took a step in that direction and Ian stopped them.

"Wait. I think Dad's in the basement. When I searched the building when we were outside, there was a man saying the experiments were down stairs in the basement. Maybe Dad's down there?" 

"Remind me again why we're saving your dad who condoned to people testing on you like a fuckin' lab rat?" Mickey asked.

"I can't just let him die, Mickey." Ian said.

Mickey rolled his eyes as they went forth to the stairwell, going down the narrow stairs. There was blood splattered all over the place as they ventured down the stairs. They found the first body folded over the railing, missing his face. They all grimaced and kept going down. There were more bodies on the stairs, mangled and covered in blood. Jerica held back vomit as she stepped over the bodies.

They kept going down to what seemed like a never ending path of stairs, stepping over bodies, until they made it to the bottom. There was a large black door and Ian stood infront of it. He put his hand up against the door and closed his eyes, trying to see if he could see Frank. Ian thought he sensed his dad was in there so, he nodded the others to move forward.

Ian slowly opened the door, peeking his head through, and froze. There were at least four lizard-like creatures.. _monsters_ .. that stood over multiple dead bodies, eating them, while three maybe four more were crawling on the walls. The creatures were full-grown human sized with moss-green colored scales covering their bodies. They had a spiked fin on their backs and each creature had a long tale, curled inward as they feasted on the bodies using their long sharp claws to rip them apart. They were muscular looking, arms and legs longer than normal lizards, but shape still resembling one. Ian moved his glance to their faces and nearly screamed in terror at their razor-sharp teeth inside of their mouths that opened up 3 times the normal size of a human mouth. Their eyes glowed a deep golden color, though uneasy to look at altogether.

Jerica heard the crunching of bones coming from the other side of the door and lightly tapped on Ian's back as he stood motionless, watching the nightmare creatures before him.

"Ian, what do you see?" She whispered. 

He couldn't move, petrified by the sight. After hearing a few more _What are you looking ats,_ he slowly backed away, pulling the door shut almost silently. As the door was cracking shut, he saw a glimpse of one of the creatures standing up abruptly, roughly standing at 7 feet tall. Once the door was shut, he turned around to face everyone, white as a ghost. 

"We've got to get the _fuck_ out of here. Right now." Ian whispered. 

"What about Dad?" Lip asked.

Everyone moved their gaze when they heard growling and crackling noises coming from behind the closed door. Ian's heart pounded in fear. Mickey grabbed Ian's arm.

"Ian, what's behind that door.." Mickey asked in a whisper. 

One of the creatures pounded into the door, making an instant dent and causing everyone to jump in fear. They stared in shock as a second thud into the door created another dent, nearly taking it off the hinge. Ian turned his head quickly to face everyone, eyes wide and frightened.

"Run!"


	15. Going Down

Jerica bolted up the stairs as Lip, Mickey and Ian followed behind. On the side of the wall, there was an emergency axe in a glass case. Ian and Mickey stopped. Mickey covered his fist with his flannel and pounded it against the glass, shattering the case and grabbing the axe. They followed the sounds of the footsteps running up the stairs as Jerica and Lip didn't stop. The flickering lights made it difficult to see, but they finally caught up with the two who were ahead.

Ian ran into Lip when his brother immediately stopped infront of the first level door. He was looking through the glass window on the door and couldn't speak as he was looking at two of the lizard creatures. Jerica was halfway up the stairs before going back down to grab Lip when she stopped too, seeing the creatures just behind the door. 

"What the _fuck_ are those?" She slowly whispered. 

Mickey furrowed his brow and stepped past Ian to look. He stopped on the stair and stared out the window, watching the creatures crawl around the hallway and hiss.

"Can they see us?" Lip whispered. 

"I'm honestly not sure." Ian answered.

Ian closed his eyes, trying to see if the creatures had any memory or flashbacks of being tested on. He saw nothing. Then it struck him, he would try to hold them down as they opened the door and ran out of the building. When he lifted his hand up to try and hold them down, feeling they were strong, they were still able to move. He tried again, this time cupping his hand trying to grip tightly and snap their neck. Nothing. He tried to make them feel as if they were sedated with his mood control. They continued to hiss and growl as if nothing was wrong.

"How the hell.." Ian whispered, releasing his grip and opening his eyes.

Lip turned his body to Ian, looking away from the creatures. "What?"

"They aren't affected by my telekinesis or mood control. I tried to hold them down, I tried snapping their necks, and I even tried to make them feel as if they were sedated but nothing worked!" Ian whispered in a panic and continued, "How are we gonna get out of here?"

Mickey's phone began to ring, scaring the four of them and causing the brunette to drop his axe to the floor. He ripped the phone out of his pocket and answered in a loud whisper as he picked the axe back up.

"Christ! What?"

"Mickey! You need to get out of there _now!_ Fi and I just circled the building and we saw some weird fucking.. lizard? I don't know but they're trying to break out of the windows and you need to get the fuck outta there!" Mandy yelled into the phone. 

Mickey looked up, noticing everyone was silent and staring at the door. As he moved his eyes onto the door, he saw one of the creatures staring back at him. He hung up the phone and slowly put it in his pocket. 

"Guys.." Jerica whispered as she slowly took a step up the stairs. 

Suddenly, a door breaking off the hinges and loud growling and roaring came from down in the basement. 

"Move! Now!" Lip yelled as everyone sprinted up the stairs.

Ian looked back at the door where the lizards were now pounding into. He tilted his head to the side, locking it, as he continued to run up the stairs. They made it to the second level and bursted through the door, everyone slipping and falling on the splattered blood on the floor. They got back up and Ian locked that door as well. Lip found what looked to be a guard before he body was mauled, and grabbed his gun.

Ian led them to where he saw the scientists huddled in his real-time vision and opened the door. Thankfully, they were still there. Ian locked the door behind them and turned off the light switch, though, the strobing lights from the hallway still shining across their faces.

"Please don't shoot!" A blonde woman yelled, throwing her hands up in surrender. 

"I really should fucking shoot you for what you guys cooked up in this goddamn lab!" Lip yelled, earning a bunch of shushes. 

"They were never supposed to get that big... That powerful." A bald man with glasses replied.

Ian walked toward the scientists and crouched down beside them. 

"I know you know who we are. So you're gonna tell me where Frank is so we can get out of here and leave you fucking pieces of shit here to rot like the others." Ian gritted through his teeth.

"We don't know where he is, Ian. He was in the room where they test on plants when you so-kindly wiped out our power and let these monsters out of their cages." A brunette woman whispered. 

"If you didn't make them in the first place, we wouldn't be having this conversation now, would we?" Ian questioned, raising an eyebrow. 

The three of the scientists remained silent.

"Thought so. Now where is the plant testing room and why are they insusceptible to my powers?"

"Third level." The brunette woman answered.

"What did you just say?" The man asked.

"They're completely immune to my powers. I tried everything I could and nothing worked."

"Chuck, what is he talking about?" The blonde woman asked, eyes widened. 

"Sandy, it's fine." Chuck muttered back, never breaking his gaze from Ian.

"No _Sandy,_ it's not fuckin' fine. My boyfriend here was our main weapon against these lizard fucks and now you mean to tell me that were probably gonna end up like your buddies out there?" Mickey said frantically. 

"Boyfriend?" Jerica asked excitedly.

"Oh for fucks sake. We're about to get ripped apart by these fucking creatures out there because Victor Frankenstein and his groupies cooked up some sort of insane hybrid lizard things and all you wanna ask me about is that?" Mickey said in annoyance.

"Chuck, why are they immune to the subject's efficacies?" Shannon, the brunette woman, asked.

"We may have had some complications-"

"Wow! So even you guys keep secrets from one another. It just gets fucking better." Lip interrupted Chuck. 

They all looked over towards the door as they heard hissing and growling getting closer.

"How do we get out of here?" Jerica pressed grabbing the axe out of Mickey's hands and pointing it at the huddled scientists. 

"We're pretty high up right now, so jumping is out of the cards. And if Ian's not able to stop them, we have guns. We can try to shoot out way out of here-"

"Try?"Jerica interrupted Chuck, now holding the edge of the axe opposite the blade up to his neck. He swallowed hard. 

"There were only four Reptilians this morning. I don't have an explanation as to why there are close to 15 last time we saw before hiding in here. So I'm not sure if we're going to have enough bullets to fight off that many- that's why I said _try."_ Chuck elaborated.

"Well how many fuckin' guns do you have in here?" Mickey asked.

"Is 'fuck' truly that essential to your daily vocabulary?" Chuck asked, earning a death glare from Mickey before he continued, "Three. We have three machine guns."

"When you say reptilian, I picture a fictional human-reptile hybrid.." Ian trailed off. 

"Precisely." Chuck answered matter-of-factly. 

Jerica pushed the axe in harder against Chuck's neck feeling infuriated with what these people have created in the lab. Lip grabbed the axe from her and faced everyone else. 

"Alright. I've got a gun already. Mick and Jerica, you two should take one and let baldini over here take the last one." Lip ordered. 

Everyone nodded and the scientists got up off the floor. 

"Ian, you stay behind us with the girls and try your best to look out for us. You can still see where they are even if they're immune to your powers right?" Lip asked.

Ian closed his eyes, trying to search for the reptilians. It only took him 15 seconds until he opened his eyes.

"I can see them. There's two right behind this wall in the hallway. The lights and the alarms are tripping them up so I think we can shoot them. We've gotta stop at the third floor to get Frank. He's our dad and I can't just let him die."

"Son, he's most likely dead already." Chuck answered. 

"You don't know that! I can't find him in my visions but I feel he's still alive. I thought he was in the basement but there were too many bodies to tell. And you said yourself that the plant room is upstairs so he couldn't be down there." Ian answered. 

Chuck sighed heavily and nodded.

"Fine. But we're taking the elevators. The stairwell was flooded with those slimey fuckers." Jerica added.

Mickey and Lip led the way while Jerica and Chuck were close behind followed by Ian and the two other scientists. Ian could see the creatures climbing on the wall opposite the door and nodded for Mickey to move forward. He quickly opened the door and began shooting at one reptilian while Lip got the other. It took a few shots each, but they were able to kill them.

They moved slowly down the hall and Ian saw another one behind the corner. 

"Wait." He whispered and everyone stood still, realizing they could now hear the growling. 

The creature ran forward quickly, drool dripping from its mouth, and Jerica shot it down. She spat on it and continued to move forward with the rest of the group. 

The elevators were a few feet away when suddenly it dinged, indicating something had been going down and was about to come out. Ian didn't see anything inside but everyone stood still and pointed their guns at the door, anticipating what was about to come out.


	16. Decisions

"Dad?" Ian whispered when the door opened, Frank bracing himself unarmed, anticipating what he was going to see behind the doors.

Frank exhaled in relief and stepped out of the elevator that had a dead body inside of it.

"Boys, what are you doing here?" Frank asked frantically and looked over to see his colleagues, "Chuck?"

"Your sons and their friends wanted to make sure you were safe before getting out of here. To save you some time, Ian knows about us and what we do. They've also been exposed to the reptilian subjects. Now that we're up to speed, let's move." Chuck ordered, moving his gun to the hall indicating everyone should move in that direction. 

As they started to move, Frank put a hand on Ian's shoulder. 

"Son, I know you probably hate me right now but-"

"We need to keep moving and I need to focus so I can see, with the fucking freak show powers you gave me might I add, where these fucking things that you also have out-done yourself yet again by creating are, in this place." Ian interrupted bluntly as he kept moving forward. 

"I guess I deserve that." Frank mumbled as everyone rolled their eyes and kept moving. 

Ian saw five more of the creatures around the corner and furrowed his brow. 

"Stop." He ordered, everyone obliging. 

"Chuck, you said you saw fifteen total right?" Ian asked looking at the scientist.

Chuck nodded.

"We've killed three so far. I see five around the corner, eating bodies. Dad, how many were up there with you?" Ian asked.

"Probably ten." Frank answered. 

"So that's eighteen. Do either of you know how they're able to duplicate and grow that quickly? We're talking duplication in _minutes._ How is this possible?" Ian questioned.

"We may have included highly rapid growing cells into the experiment as it was taking too long to get the results we were looking for. We noticed that the very first lizard we had tested on mutated into a second one. We never thought it would turn out like this. We were planning to kill them as they've grown way too strong and were growing rapidly, out of control. But, with the EMP, that was no longer a possibility."

Lip let out a humorless laugh. "Your fucking _experiments_ or subjects or whatever the fuck you want to call them, are living and breathing creatures. They have natural animalistic features and pretty soon they're gonna figure out where they fuckin' stand in the food chain. If they can duplicate or mutate that quickly, how are we, one, going to get out of here alive and two, make sure they don't get out of here?"

"We're going to have to get the secret services involved since this was entirely a failed project." Chuck answered. 

"Thousands of people could die and that's on your watch. All of you." Lip said, pointing at his dad and the scientists. 

"We'll get it contained I just can't promise we're going to get out of here." Chuck responded.

"No. We're getting out of here." Frank interjected and looked apologetically at his sons before continuing. 

"Lip, I want you to text your sister. I saw her outside on the security footage. Tell her she needs to call the FBI and say the words, 'Project HALO- Code magenta, real world. #090' and then hang up immediately and wait for assistance. We're going to keep moving down until we're in the main lobby downstairs and we're gonna wait until the rescue team gets here. It shouldn't take them long. Once they arrive, none of these creatures will be getting out but we absolutely will be."

Lip nodded and pulled out his phone to text Fiona. Chuck moved forward quietly to get closer to Frank. 

"You just gave them information that's strictly confidential!" He whispered.

"Chuck, they're my family and this is my fault. I can't let them die because of me. Now let's get moving and we'll deal with the breach of confidentiality bullshit after we make it out of here still breathing." Frank whispered back.

Chuck sighed and continued to move, ready to shoot at the next five creatures around the corner. 

As they approached the corner, Mickey moved in front of everyone and started to slowly moved his head to see where they were. Before he could actually see, Ian's eyes widened and he yelled, "Now!"

Mickey pulled his head back and began to open his fire as the creatures growled and jumped infront of them. Jerica and Lip joined in, shooting at the creatures until there was one left that Chuck was able to get. They started to run as they could hear loud muffled roaring and growling behind them. 

They got to the stairwell that seemed to be clear and sprinted down the stairs. They approached the door to the first floor and ran out of it, Ian locking it behind them. Suddenly Ian came to a halt.

"Guys, stop!" He whispered loudly. 

Everyone stopped and paced their way back to Ian; all except for Chuck and the two other female scientists who continued to run.

"Chuck, wait!" Ian called out.

Chuck looked behind him to see everyone staring at them with wide eyes. He shook his head and continued through the door leading to the lobby only to find twelve of the terrifying creatures tearing apart a guard over to the far left of the room near the front desk. Chuck and the other scientists stood still as the creatures feasted, growling and crunching noises was all anyone could hear. They took a slow step back and the creatures immediately looked up in their direction.

"Ian, you've gotta close the door." Mickey whispered. 

"I can't.. They'll die.."

"Ian, _we're_ going to fucking die if you don't. Close the door."

"Son, you've gotta listen to him. Close the door." Frank agreed, sweat dripping down his face.

Ian let out a cry as he saw Chuck and the girls turn around and make a run for it towards the door. 

"I'm sorry.." Ian whispered as he reached his hand forward, cupped it, pulled inward, instantly closing and locking the door.

Ian covered his ears and plopped down onto the ground as he heard their screams on the other side of the door. Mickey ran over to the redhead and wrapped his arms around him. 

"I'm so sorry, Ian. We're gonna be okay. I'm so sorry.." Mickey whispered, kissing his forhead, as Ian wept in his arms.

Frank furrowed his brow, not knowing his son was gay. Lip looked up at Frank and put a hand on his shoulder. 

"He would have told you, Dad. You're just not home a lot. Makes it harder for him to open up." Lip said.

Frank looked down, feeling ashamed of himself for letting his job get in the way of his family yet again. He looked back up at Lip. 

"We're getting out of here, son. The rescue squad should be here any minute now. And when we do get out of here, I'm going to make up for every mistake I've made. I'm truly sorry for everything." Frank whispered. 

Before Lip could answer, the sounds of growling started getting closer to them. Mickey stood up and moved infront of Ian, holding out his gun ready to shoot. Lip and Jerica did the same, protecting Frank and Ian. The redhead stood up and closed his eyes, searching how many were behind the corner. 

"There's two. They're about to lunge forward from behind the corner right at us." Ian said, opening his eyes.

"Bring it, bitch." Jerica muttered, waiting for the creatures to make a move. 

The beasts jumped out, Mickey and Jerica laying their fire into them before Lip even could. The creatures dropped to the floor, dead, and Mickey walked forward to waste more bullets into one of their heads.

"Mick! That's enough!" Jerica yelled out as he continued to shoot their lifeless bodies.

He finally stopped, eyes wild, and panted as he looked up at everyone. Ian walked forward to Mickey and slowly put his hand on the gun, bringing it down. 

"You told me it was gonna be okay, remember? So I'm telling you the same. We're gonna be okay. Let's move away from them and wait for the rescue team." Ian said trying to comfort the brunette. 

Mickey nodded. Before rejoining the group, he kicked the creature's head. Ian shook his head and waited for Mickey to rejoin the group as they waited to be rescued. The reptilian creatures on the other side of the door continued to growl and hiss, still eating the scientists. It was only a matter of time before they noticed the humans on the other side of the door.


	17. Never Say Never

"They're starting to notice us." Lip pointed out as some of the creatures in the lobby began looking through the narrow glass window on the door.

"Hurry up. Hurry up." Frank whispered to himself, referring to the rescue team.

One of the creatures ran into the door, causing a large dent. Jerica, Mickey and Lip stood infront of Ian and Frank, preparing for the creatures to get through the door and ready to open fire.

"I'm sorry for not always being there for you guys. I should have never taken this job. Before we die, I wanted you to know that I love you both and your sister very much." Frank said to his sons.

"Don't you say your goodbyes! You said yourself we're getting out of here!" Lip shouted frantically, still facing forward as another one of the reptilian creatures rammed into the door. 

Ian closed his eyes and focused in the lobby. He couldn't do anything to them directly, but it suddenly hit him that he could do things to them _indirectly._ Ian's eyes flew open and he looked at Frank.

"Do you know of any weaknesses they might have?"

Frank furrowed his brow, trying to think quickly. "No. The only thing I truly remember before they got out of hand was extreme temperatures hurt them. Cold or hot; it didn't matter which one as long as it was either extremely hot or extremely cold. They'd go nuts."

Ian nodded. "Let's burn these motherfuckers down."

Ian stood up and walked a few feet away from the door. Mickey went to pull him back when Lip grabbed the brunette's arm and shook his head, indicating Ian would be fine. Mickey sighed and watched the red head intently. 

Ian stopped moving, closing his eyes and focusing in the room. He envisioned fire that burned around the room, frying the creatures. He could feel fatigue building as he knew this would be the hardest thing he's ever had to do aside from the EMP. He started to feel a burning sensation in his body as he channeled the fire. Ian opened his eyes to look through the glass and saw small sparks forming in the middle of the floor, suddenly turning into flames. Ian smiled and shut his eyes again, trying to muster up every bit of energy that he was rapidly losing. 

Ian reached out a cupped hand, holding the water back from coming out of the sprinklers. With his eyes closed, he could see the creatures trying to run away from the flames. Ian tilted his neck to the side, locking any and all surrounding doors so the creatures could not get out. Lip could see the flames building on the other side of the window.

"Ian, are you sure about this?"

"We won't burn. Only them." Was all Ian could say as he pushed the flames further onto the creatures. They ran around and hissed, trying to get away from the fire but Ian made the flames catch up to them no matter where they tried running to. Lip and Mickey watched as the creatures started to finally burn.

"Will they die?" Mickey asked.

"I'm not sure." Lip answered. 

Mickey's question was soon answered as he watched a few of the creatures' movements diminish and dropped on to their sides to sit and burn. Ian made sure every single one of them were dead until he uncupped his hand, letting the sprinklers rain down on the fire as he tried to focus on putting it out with his mind. The sprinklers helped, but Ian was able to put out the remaining flames with a swipe of his hand.

The moment the flames went out, Ian dropped to the floor unconscious. Mickey ran over to him, holding Ian in his arms.

"Ian!" Jerica and Lip screamed, also running over to him.

Frank walked over slowly knowing Ian would be okay, though, feeling guilty for even knowing that in the first place.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Mickey cried out.

Frank put a hand on Mickey's shoulder. "He's gonna be just fine."

Mickey nodded. Suddenly Ian's eyes fluttered open and he gasped, beginning to cough uncontrollably. Mickey wrapped his arms around him tightly, never wanting to let go. Everyone else sighed in relief and smiled. Frank crouched down and reached for Ian's hand.

"I'm so proud of you, Son." 

Ian mustered up a very small smile but continued to cough. Everyone moved their gaze as they saw the rescue team barge through the charred lobby, calling out for any survivors. Frank ran to the door and kicked it open startling the rescue team and causing them to aim their guns at him. He slowly moved his hands up in surrender. 

"I'm Frank Gallagher, employee number 001103178 and I had my daughter outside call this in. We were under attack by our experiments that grew far more stronger than we expected. This is a code magenta- real world."

"My name's Rob and this is my rescue crew. We have your daughter and her friend restrained outside with Dr. Bradshaw. Are there any more survivors, Mr. Gallagher?" Rob asked. 

"My two sons and their two friends behind me. I'm not sure about anyone else. I'm also not certain where the other experiments may have run off to. Please send back up, they require a lot of bullets before going down."

Rob looked back to his team and signaled them to move forward.

"We'll go look for other survivors and terminate any of the loose experiments. You can go outside to see your daughter. She's being questioned and being offered some sort of a hush hush deal."

Rob radioed in for more back-up and continued to move forward with his team. Ian, Lip, Jerica and Mickey walked into the lobby and followed Frank to the cars outside where Dr. Bradshaw and other people wearing suits were, questioning Mandy and Fiona.

"Why shouldn't we tell people about this fucking lab? You're all psychotic!" Mandy yelled at one of the men in the suits.

"Mandy, we will pay you handsomely to keep quiet and will tend to your requests. Any request you have we will fulfill." Dr. Bradshaw reiterated, her piercing blue eyes staring into Mandy's.

"This is so fucked up." Mandy muttered, trying to scratch her neck with handcuffs on.

"Dr. Bradshaw, why don't you uncuff my daughter and her friend." Frank interrupted. 

She turned around to face Frank and raised an eyebrow. "Ah, Mr. Gallagher. I don't suppose you're the one who is responsible for letting outsiders in on our projects."

"Kim, everyone's dead. I watched Chuck get ripped apart by the goddamn experiments that we should have never created in the first place. The last thing on my mind at this moment is my _family_ knowing about the bullshit that we do in here." Frank said bluntly. 

"You realize you broke your contract which entails jail time, right?" Dr. Bradshaw asked.

"What part of everyone's dead and these lizard things tried to eat us don't you understand?" Frank raised his voice. 

Dr. Bradshaw moved her gaze to Ian. "And here is the subject who killed the power in the entire town by creating a massive EMP and caused all this unnecessary attention. Great job with containing him, Frank."

Frank walked closer to Dr. Bradshaw and looked at her with threatening eyes. "You leave my family out of this. I've been doing this shit for nearly 20 years and I've never broken contract once. I've always done what I'm told to do without question. And, I'm one of the best goddamn scientists you have here. I want all of the kids to be completely off the hook and paid for the bullshit we've put them through _on top_ of the hush hush money you're trying to offer. I also want to walk away scot-free. No jail time. I don't need to be paid to keep my mouth shut, but I _will_ keep my mouth shut."

Kim let out a dry, humorless laugh. "You can't just walk away from this job. The kids, we can work something out. As for you, it's either you continue to work for us while keeping your mouth shut or you go to jail for the rest of your miserable life. Don't think for one second I'm bluffing."

Lip put a hand on Frank's arm. "Dad, it's okay. We know you care about us. Just work here and avoid life-long jail time."

Frank turned his head back to look at Ian who also nodded reassuringly. Frank exhaled. 

"Fine. But remember, my kids are left out of this and paid."

Kim Bradshaw brought a fake smile to her face and nodded as she walked away to another car approaching the parking lot. Ian moved his gaze back to the lab for one last look, knowing it would forever give him nightmares. He shuddered at the haunting thoughts that already scarred him and began to answer the questions that the people in suits were asking. 

**********************************

_Six months later._

**********************************

"Guys, do we really need to go to the movies? I really don't like horror films any more." Mandy complained in the front seat of Lip's Camaro.

"Jerica will have a fucking conniption if we don't go to see this movie on opening night. Now stop being a pussy and suck it up." Mickey answered from the backseat as Ian nestled his head into the brunette's neck.

Lip adjusted his mirror, watching as Fiona backed her Audi out of the driveway with Jerica in the front seat and headed to the cinema. 

"Hey love birds, think you can keep your hands off eachother for the next ten minutes until we get to the movie theater?" Lip teased.

Ian rolled his eyes and flipped Lip off simultaneously with Mickey. Mandy shook her head in amusement. 

"You may be a cynical asshole 90% of the time, but I'm glad you finally found someone Mick. You deserve it." Mandy said with a small smile and turned around to face forward. 

Lip backed out of the driveway and turned the car onto the main road, not far behind Fiona's car.

"Driving Miss Daisy up there is gonna make us late." Lip teased as he caught right up to his sister who was driving extremely slow.

Ian started to feel like he was being watched and turned his head around to look out the window. Mickey watched as Ian looked out the back window and sighed, already knowing what he was looking at.

"How long are the sketchy vans gonna follow us for?" Mickey asked and Lip looked out the rearview mirror, seeing the van.

"Who knows. Probably just making sure we're holding up on our end of the bargain to keep quiet. At least they were able to make an agreement with us that we stay here permanently. Moving again would have really sucked." Lip answered and turned on the radio to help ease the tension.

Ian turned around, feeling grateful to finally have the ability to maintain a permanent residence. At least for now. He began to nod his head to the music as Lip went to change the station. 

"No! Leave it." Ian ordered as he started to sing along to the words and Lip sighed in annoyance.

Mickey furrowed his brow, trying to jog his memory of who the band was. He instantly remembered and rolled his eyes.

"Christ with The Fray again. Such a lame fuckin' band." Mickey said as he crossed his arms watching the red head sing along.

"They're not lame! Ian has good taste in music." Mandy defended the red head as she turned around to face him and sang along to the words.

"Says the one who also has shitty taste in music." Mickey muttered under his breath. 

"Why do we have such lame fucking dates?" Lip chuckled out teasingly and Mickey laughed. 

Ian grabbed Mickey's hand and dramatically sang along. Mickey pulled away from his grip and swatted at Ian's hand. Ian continued to sing obnoxiously.

 _"Don't let me go. Don't let me go. Don't let me gooooooo!"_

"Jesus." Mickey said, but couldn't help lightly chuckling at his goofy boyfriend. 

Ian grabbed at Mickey's hand again and Mickey gave in, letting his boyfriend continue to serenade him. 

"Okay, fine. But never again." Mickey said, raising his eyebrows at Ian as the redhead continued to sing. 

"You can never say never, Mick." Ian said as he stopped singing and stared into Mickey's eyes.

"Don't you go fucking quoting these god-awful song lyrics to me now." Mickey retorted. 

Ian continued to stare, waiting for Mickey to further scold him on his 'poor taste in music'. Mickey rolled his eyes and sighed, starting to sing along as Ian's eyes lit up. Lip laughed and also joined in. They all continued to sing along to the song, thankful to still be alive from that mishap down at the lab six months ago. It brought them all closer than ever, but also brought heavy attention on all of them as the government made sure they actually kept their mouths shut. They were paid to do so, and planned on never telling a soul about what they saw. For a town so small where everyone knew everything, keeping a secret this big was hard and would only continue to be difficult as time went on. As long as they all had each other, they'd be able to swing it. They knew they could swing anything from this point on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading and leaving comments and kudos along the way! This one was definitely fun to write and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!❤


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